She Speeds Up the Tempo of My Heartbeat
by NattheBatt
Summary: Chloe Beale is a senior in high school now. Her biggest concern for the time being is passing Pre-Cal. Or... at least it is, until she meets a mysterious freshman who loves music, and is fond of black nail polish and plaid shirts.
1. Chapter 1

"Aubrey, I'm going to drop this class!" Chloe whines as she slides her paper off of her desk and onto the floor. She doesn't wait to see where it lands as she drops her head down onto the wooden surface, groaning slightly at the unexpected pain that accompanies the action. She hears her friend sigh heavily, shortly followed by the sound of Aubrey standing up.

"No you're not Chloe. You know, if you'd stop griping about how hard pre-cal is, you might be able to finish this paper before the bell rings." Aubrey says calmly as she places the paper back in front of her flustered friend. Chloe raises her head slightly, glances at all the numbers and formulas that seem to be dancing around on her paper, and groans again before begrudgingly sitting up.

"Help me." Chloe whines, jutting out her bottom lip slightly so that she's pouting at her best friend.

"You're doing it right."

"I still need help though."

"Not from the looks of it."

"Bre, come on-"

"Chloe, just try it." Aubrey persists, already having finished the paper and knowing that Chloe almost had the problem finished. _Correctly at that. _The blonde girl thinks with a proud smile on her face.

"Fine." Chloe grumbles as she turns her attention back to her paper. Fifteen minutes and several curse words later, Chloe is turning her paper into the basket on the back counter of the classroom.

"See, it wasn't that hard." Aubrey chides as she texts someone back.

"Yes it was! And you were no help!" Chloe retorts as she also pulls out her phone.

"I'm offended, but since you're pretty, I'll let it go. Now, do you want to sit with me on the bus this Friday?" Aubrey asks, successfully changing the subject.

"Sure!"

"Alright. The bell's about to ring." Aubrey states, and as if to prove her point the bell sounded just then. The two girls gather their things while Chloe complains about having so much work only a few weeks into the school year.

* * *

"May I take your order?" Chloe asks while forcing a smile onto her face. It's not that she didn't like her job, but school had been so draining that day that she was barely able to drag her sorry butt to work today.

"I'll have the deluxe burger." The man replies while smiling back at her and handing the menu to her. She writes down his order as quickly as her cramped hand will allow.

"Is that all?" She asks slightly hoping that he'd say yes. Luck was with her that moment as he nodded his head in reply. As she turns to head towards the kitchen she sees a pair of new customers walk through the door. She's seen them both here multiple times in the years that she's worked at the café, but she's never talked to them other than taking their order. Not that she hasn't wanted to though, but she could never force herself to say hi to the younger girl who always seemed to be upset. Chloe smiles slightly when she notices that the young girl still has her headphones around her neck. Chloe couldn't decide why, but she thought it was entirely too cute that she always had them. Giving the chef her customer's order, she prepared herself to go ask the girl and her father what they wanted to drink.

"Here are your menus, and do you know what you would like to drink?" She asks her signature smile back in place. The father looks to his daughter before inhaling slowly.

"Un-sweet tea please." He replies.

"Okay, and you…?" She asks but trails off as she looks at the strange girl's eyes. She suddenly can't breathe, and she'd like to blame it on the fact that the younger girl looks like she wants to take Chloe out back and beat her up, but that doesn't seem quite right to her.

"Dr. Pepper please." She stated, her voice sounding more bored than anything Chloe has ever heard before, and it hurts her feelings a little bit. _Not that it should, at all, but still… _Chloe argues with her herself before forcing herself past her questionable emotional reaction.

"Okay, those will be right out." Chloe replies, maybe a bit curtly she thinks and her suspicions are furthered when the other girl quirks an eyebrow at her. Chloe resists the urge to defend herself and instead turns on her heel to go get their drinks.

* * *

"Hey Chlo, can you take Benji and I up to the store?" Chloe's little brother asks, not even two seconds after she walks through the door. She sighs as heavily as she can.

"Jesse, can't you wait until I've been home for like, ten minutes before you ask me for something?" She asks, her tone practically dripping with impatience. Either Jesse doesn't notice or he doesn't care because he seems unaffected.

"Uh, I guess… So, that's a yes right?" He asks smiling at her. She rolls her eyes so hard that the room spins for a few seconds after the maneuver.

"Get in the damn car." She sighs out in reply.

"Yeah! Thanks Chloe!" He cheers with a shining smile on his face._ As much as he gets on my nerves, he is still my little brother._ "Benji! Come on man!" Jesse yells through the house before running around his sister to go outside. Benji comes around the corner shortly after that smiling at the senior.

"Hey Chloe, how was work?" He asks politely as she turns to head to her car with the young freshman.

"It was… Alright I guess." She replies, her mind fleetingly thinking back to the girl that had practically ruined her false good mood at work tonight. "How was school?"

"Not too bad." He says unconvincingly before he gets in the back seat of the car. Chloe gets in and starts the car, and Jesse immediately lunges for the plug to the stereo so he can blast his music. While driving and not listening to the rap that's thumping through her speakers, her mind drifts to the subject of her life. She doesn't mind living in a small town, which is a good thing since that's exactly what her hometown is. Everyone else her age, including her two best friends, Aubrey Posen and Stacie Conrad, cannot wait to, "get the hell out of this town" as they put it. But Chloe knows that she's going to miss working at her grandmother's café, she's going to miss staying out with her friends until twelve on the weekends, and she's going to miss her parents **a lot**.

She's even going to miss coming home to her bratty little brother and Benji, who is not her little brother, but she loves him as if he were anyway since he and Jesse have been best friends since middle school. She pulls up to the store and she sees Mr. Varen inside standing behind the counter. He smiles and waves at her. As she's waving and smiling back she realizes that this is just one more thing she's going to miss.

* * *

"Thanks for taking us Chloe." Benji says politely as they enter the house. She smiles and nods at him before shooting a pointed look at her brother. He quickly swallows the mouth full of potato chips he had been eating and muffles out a distorted "Thanks!" before he enters his room and closes the door behind Benji.

"You're welcome!" She shouts through the door. She quickly throws her apron onto her bed before she turns around and heads towards her parents' room. She knocks on the door and quietly pushes it open. "Hey Mom." She whispers, seeing that her father is already sleeping and snoring quietly.

"Hey honey, how was your day?" Her mother greets, her face lighting up at seeing her daughter.

"It was alright I suppose." Chloe murmurs as she sits on the edge of the bed next to her mother.

"That good huh?" She asks laughing slightly. "What happened to put you in a bad mood?" Her mother inquires while grabbing her daughter's hand.

"Nothing really. School was a little overbearing, but other than that, nothing eventful happened." The younger Beale woman replied wondering slightly why she felt like she were lying.

"You sure?" The older woman questions, still not convinced her daughter is completely alright.

"Yeah Mom, for sure." She reassures her while smiling at her brightly. This seems to convince her mother as she smiles back at her and nods her head in acknowledgement. "But I am really tired, so I'm going to go to bed now okay?" She continues, and as if to accent her point she has to stifle a yawn with her hand as she finishes the statement. Her mother simply shakes her head.

"Alright, goodnight Chloe, I love you, sleep tight." Her mother says as her daughter stands to make her way to her own room.

"Goodnight Mom, love you too, sweet dreams. Tell Dad I love him too please." She says more so than asks, but the implication is still received well as her mother nods in reply. Chloe trudges to her room and changes clothes as quickly as she can in order to get to bed sooner. While she's pulling the covers back she can't help but review her day, and thus her thoughts travel back to the girl at the dinner. Chloe chews her lip momentarily wondering what she could've said to the girl to get a more pleasant interaction out of her, or if the girl would simply dismiss her with a wave of her hand if she tried to talk with her. For some reason that second possibility scared her more than it should have, seeing as she doesn't even know who she is. _Doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to though..._

She sighs tiredly and dismisses the thoughts as she reaches up and turns off her overhead light and crawls into bed, while her lamp still burns brightly, keeping the dark at bay. She plugs her phone onto the dock that sits next to her bed and drifts off to sleep, the chords in the song forcing her heavy eyelids to close.

* * *

**A/N: **Alright, so I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for quite sometime now, and I've decided to try and make it presentable and release it into the public. Please don't club it. ._. I'd like to know if you'd want this to be continued or if I should just leave it alone. So! If you like it and would like to see it continued leave a review, and let me pick up what you're putting down! :) (Please I'm so lonely T-T) Anyway! Have a good day/night and most importantly stay sexy~ Nat


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I forgot to do this last chapter, but I figured I should just let everyone know that I do not in fact, own Pitch Perfect or any of the characters in any way, shape, or form. Are you happy now? I'm just gonna go cry in a corner now. :'(**

* * *

_**A/N:** **From this point on I will be writing the story by keeping up with Beca rather than Chloe. I'm sorry if this bothers you in anyway, but I personally feel it would make the story better if it was told this way. That's all I have to say at the moment, so enjoy the chapter!**_

* * *

"Beca, are you packed yet?" her father asks for what sounds like the thousandth time. His daughter sighs heavily in reply.

"Why do I even have to go?" The brunette asks, already knowing what his reply would be, but refusing to go without a fight. Her father pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

"You already know. She's your mother Beca, and every other weekend doesn't seem too bad." He tries to reason. She rolls her eyes so hard that her head rocks along with the motion.

"If it's not that bad, why don't you join us?" She counters while reaching into her pocket to retrieve her phone. It's his turn to sigh.

"It's not really appropriate for me to spend the weekend with my ex-wife."

"Excuses."

"Beca, I don't feel like having this conversation with you again, will you please just go get packed?"

"Yeah, sure." Beca relents as she rises from the couch and walks briskly to her room where she promptly closes the door. She reaches under her bed in order to procure the duffle bag she keeps placed there before she begins to gather her clothes together for the weekend she'll have to spend with her _good for nothing _mother. She makes sure to leave her shorts out for tomorrow, so that she can wear them under her band uniform. _Speaking of which…_

Beca reaches into the rear pocket of her black skinny jeans for her phone. While simultaneously throwing a sleep shirt into her bag, she fires off a text to one of her best friends, Patricia, or as she's started calling herself, Fat Amy. Beca didn't like calling her friend that since she thought it had something to do with Patricia's self-esteem, however Pat insisted upon the usage of the name, and genuinely seemed more comfortable with it. That's why the name Fat Amy was now a mutual understanding between them.

**Hey Amy, are we gonna sit together tomorrow on the bus? **

Beca walks over to one of the two iPod docks that are in her room, the one that's sitting on top of the mini fridge in the far corner of her room, right next to her closet. She places her phone on the dock, and goes into the laundry room to grab a few pairs of socks that she has yet to put in their proper drawer. While back there she hears her phone sound that she has a text through the dock speakers. Returning to her room, she tosses the socks into the open bag and then walks over to her phone.

**Of course you silly badger! You can't get rid of me that easily! ;)**

Beca rolls her eyes at the reply, but can't help the smile that crosses her face.

**Alright cool, see you tomorrow Amy. **

Beca texts before changing her phone screen over to her music library to select another song. She opens her fridge, grabs a bottle of water, and makes sure that she has everything packed. Once she's sure that she hasn't forgotten anything, she sits down at the desktop that sits directly under her TV to begin working on a mix that she couldn't quite figure out. As she tries to figure out where one of the beats needs to come in at, her mind drifts to a redheaded waitress that somewhat irritated her. Beca couldn't decide what the older girl's problem was. She had seen her around at school, and knew that she was a senior this year, but other than that, _and the fact that she looks like a total goody-two-shoes, _she didn't really know anything else about the girl.

It had surprised Beca to say the least when she had seemed to give her some sort of attitude when she was taking her order. _I didn't even do anything to her, and she got all defensive… _Tired of things not fitting together, annoying waitresses and stubborn mixes included, Beca decided it was time for bed. With a sigh she saved what little progress she had made and turned off her computer. Unbuttoning her purple and black plaid shirt, and sliding off her jeans, she was left in a black spaghetti strap undershirt and a pair of black boy brief underwear. She crawled into bed, and quickly fell asleep, straight into the routine fit of nightmares.

* * *

"Hey Becs!" someone yells down the hall despite seeing that the brunette has her headphones on as she makes her way to her third period. The young woman jogs to catch up to the oblivious freshman. She taps Beca on the shoulder and smiles at her as the younger girl quickly slides her headphones off to rest around her neck. "Hey Shorty, what's up?"

"Hey Cynthia, and nothing much, just on my way to World Geo." Beca replies with a slight frown at the mention of her next class. Cynthia makes a face too, also not liking that class too much.

"That sucks for you man." She teases as she smiles at her. Beca merely rolls her eyes at the senior's reply. "What're you doing after we get home from the game?" She asks, getting to the point of why she got the younger girl's attention.

"Going to Mom's."

"Oh.."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry Becs, I know you don't like going and shit." Cynthia consoles, knowing how much of a screw up the freshman's mother was, and hating that her friend had to go through that.

"It's whatever, it happens. But anyway yeah, that's what I'm doing, so I obviously won't be able to hang out, sorry."

"Nah girl, it's fine. You probably would've been bored anyway."

"Party at Bumper's house?" Beca asks, already knowing that that was probably the case. Cynthia nods in reply, and by this point they're standing outside of Beca's classroom and Cynthia is probably about to be late. "Yeah, you're probably right. You need to go, you're gonna be late." Beca says as she begins to lightly push the darker toned girl away from her classroom.

"Alright, well text me okay?"

"Will do."

"Alright, catch you later Becs." Cynthia concludes before turning and slightly jogging away in order to try and avoid being late. Beca walks to her seat nodding at the few kids who say hi as she walks by. As soon as she sits down Amy launches into a story about how someone caught someone else's boyfriend cheating on them, but the big plot twist was that it was with another guy. She proceeded to pull out her phone so that she could show Beca proof, while Beca merely wondered how all of this could've transpired in the five minutes they're allowed in-between classes.

"Hey Beca, how're the mixes going?" Benji asks shyly as he pulls up a chair in front of her from the adjacent table. She sighs heavily.

"I'm stuck on one of them right now actually." She admits, slightly embarrassed by the fact. He nods his head in understanding.

"Do you have it with you right now?"

"Yeah, but I need to finish this paper first."

"I'll help you with the paper, then you can show me the mix, and we'll see if I can help with that too, deal?" He proposes already reaching for her paper. She normally didn't like having people do things for her, and she really didn't like people hearing her mixes before they were finished… But the quicker she got her paper done, the more time she'd have to work on her mix, and Benji, despite being somewhat lame _to everyone else_ had a good ear for music, so with all of this in mind, Beca relinquished her paper over to him.

* * *

"Thanks Benji." Beca says as she puts her laptop away, slightly frustrated that they still weren't able to finish it.

"No problem, and again, I'm really sorry that I couldn't be more help." He apologizes for what was probably the hundredth time. She forces herself to smile at him.

"It's fine man, you helped a lot actually." She reassures, referring more to her now finished assignment rather than her mix. He smiles at her, but before he can continue the conversation Beca turns and walks out of the room.

"Good God, I thought I was going to have to go back in and drag your skinny ass out!" Amy exclaims as Beca steps into the hallway.

"Shut up, I had to get all my stuff."

"Excuses, excuses. So, are you nervous about tonight?" the blonde asks, her eyes widening in excitement. Beca quirks an eyebrow at her.

"No, why would I be?" She asks, eyebrow still raised in question.

"You're kidding right? What if we mess up! There's going to be a whole stadium full of people watching our every move Beca!" Amy exclaims, waving her hands around for emphasis.

"Oh, well, when you put it that way… No." Beca replies, her face taking her natural bored expression at the same time. Amy scoffs at the answer and drops the subject. "Alright, well catch you on the bus Becs, have fun being all techy and junk." Amy dismisses as she waves and continues on to her class. The brunette walks into her computer class and sits next to her somewhat friend Lilly Onakurama.

"Hi Beca." The quiet girl greets as she sits down.

"Hey Lilly. Is Mrs. Crenshaw in today?" Beca asks already pulling out her laptop since this was a class that they hardly did any work during, due to the teacher always being gone.

"No I don't believe she is. Are you going to work on your songs?" Lilly asks, forcing Beca to strain to catch all of her dialogue. Beca nods in reply. Lilly was a pretty good person, she said some really fucked up shit, but she was still an alright person. She was nice, respectful, and she did things that good friends did, so despite the creepiness and the quietness, Beca considered her a decent person. Putting on her headphones and channeling all of her focus into the current task at hand, she left behind her world and lost herself in the music that usually flowed so well, but now was grating like nails on a chalkboard.

* * *

The halftime show had gone off without too much trouble. It was not the best she had seen, but it could've gone so much worse, so she was content with it. After her computer class, in which, she still managed to not get the mix right, she went and changed into her travel uniform which consisted of khakis, black shoes, and their black band t-shirts. Everyone was gathering in the band hall where they had to grab their instruments and load up the trailer that would take everyone's instruments (except the flutes and clarinets since they could carry those with them). The bus ride had been uneventful, Beca had fallen asleep about thirty minutes in, woke up about ten minutes later, and had spent the rest of the ride listening to music and talking to Amy, Benji, and Donald at the back of the bus.

"That wasn't too bad…" Amy declares as she walks up to Beca, her tuba still sitting around her. Beca nods in agreement, her neck strap causing her saxophone to bounce slightly with the motion. Aubrey Posen, one of the band's conductor's was going around telling everyone that they could take off their jackets now.

"Hey, can you unzip me?" Someone asked. Beca knew it was too far away to be directed towards her, but she turned anyway, the person's voice who said "sure" practically making her, for reasons that she couldn't name. She turned to see a senior with dark brown hair and a pretty face tilting her head forward while holding her hair up in one hand, and another familiar senior with fiery red curls and bright blue eyes pulling down the zipper to Stacie's jacket. The redhead happened to look up at that moment, straight at Beca, and the freshman swore that she saw something akin to a war raging behind those impossibly blue eyes before the older woman smiled brightly at her. Beca was about to return the gesture, again for reasons unknown to her, but before she could Cynthia came up to her and started talking to her about how Donald messed up one of the percussion parts and how Bumper had jumped his dick about it. When Beca's eyes wandered over to where she had last seen the red headed senior, her face was no longer smiling, but instead set in a firm scowl until Aubrey walked over to her, and after a brief conversation, the other girl's smile was back in place.

Beca's phone vibrated against her arm since she had her jacket draped over said appendage. She fumbled around with it until she found the source of the vibrations and quickly slid her thumb across the bottom of the screen, and put the phone to her ear.

"Hey Beca, how'd the show go?" Her dad's voice asked her as soon as she answered.

"It went alright I guess."

"That's good. Were you nervous?"

"Nope."

"Oh, well… That's good too…" Her dad says, his voice trailing off awkwardly. He clears his throat after a moment and Beca braces herself for the conversation. "Your mother is going to be here by the time you get home, so she'll pick you up from the school, and then bring you home so that you can drop off your stuff and pick up what you need to." He informs her, and she has to grit her teeth in order not to hang up the phone and scream profanities.

"Okay, thanks for letting me have a say in that Dad. Glad you and Mom can actually talk about something." She snaps back in reply, hating it when her parents organize her pickups as if she were nothing more than a package.

"Beca, it's not like that it's just-"

"It's just nothing Dad. I gotta go, bye." She says angrily, cutting him off and hanging up the phone. She instantly feels bad about it, but she's too irritated to call him back and apologize at the moment.

"Woah, that's the face of a pissed off Beca Mitchell. What's wrong?" Amy asks, appearing out of nowhere. Beca just notices that Cynthia walked off sometime earlier, and feels slightly bad for ignoring her. _I'll text her later and apologize…_

"Mom and Dad did that thing again, where they make all of the plans and then inform me of what is going to happen instead of actually asking me if it's okay with me. Like, damn Amy, I know they're the parents and what not, but I'm just asking to be treated like a person instead of an object. Is that too much?" Beca asks, the flame of her anger quickly dying. Amy chews on her lip momentarily, and then shakes her head.

"No, no it's not. I'd probably be hotter than a red jalapeno popper too, so I can see where you're coming from. But I think you should blow that off for now, because you're going to be gone all weekend, and I don't want our last hours to be spent with you mad, alright?" Amy encourages, smiling at Beca with the slyest grin while bobbing her head back and forth and starting to do some weird chicken dance thing. Beca can't help but laugh and nod her head in agreement. Sometimes Amy got on her nerves, but only because she was so loud, but Beca couldn't argue with the fact that she had the best friend ever.

So with the decision made to "blow it off", Beca and Amy walked towards the stands and started getting their money out for snacks at the concession stand since the band got the third quarter off to chill. While they were talking about everything and nothing, Beca glanced up at the scoreboard to see that they were losing by twelve points. _Go team. _She thought sarcastically. As they were standing in line with Amy talking to the people around them about things that she liked about the halftime show, Beca couldn't help the feeling that someone was staring at her. She quickly glanced towards her right and caught a flash of red as the older girl turned her head towards Stacie in what seemed like a very animated conversation. Beca traced the outline of the redhead's profile, noting how extremely pretty the girl was before she realized she was being a creeper and refocused her attention on her best friend who was currently talking about eating three of the world's hottest peppers in a contest that was in Tasmania while she had been on vacation last year. She says that she won the competition hands down, and that she even earned herself a nickname there, one that she couldn't tell us for the fact that it would take away from the meaning of it. She smiled at her friend's story and let the night's breeze take away all of her worries.

She'd think about this weekend when she got home.

She'd also probably think about a blue-eyed senior when she got home, but she really didn't want to think about that right now, or any other time for that matter.

So instead, she'd focus on how many Tasmanian men had given their numbers to her blonde friend, and the amused looks on everyone's faces at the tales they were hearing, no doubt trying to determine if they were true or not. But Beca knew they were, because despite her friend's flaws, lying was not amongst them.

* * *

Beca, Benji, and Lilly were helping unload the trailer and making small talk about the loss of the game by fourteen as they were handed cases and passed them on. Once that was said and done, the three walked out towards the parking lot, people's parents and vehicles both waiting to take everyone home. They walked together in a sort of serene silence that other kids their age might have deemed awkward, but really it was quite nice, or at least it was in Beca's opinion.

"See you later guys." Lilly whispers as she waves and begins to walk off.

"Later!" the remaining two call back in unison.

"So, how do you think it went tonight?" Benji asks readjusting his band uniform bag over his arm.

"It could've been better, but it could've been a lot worse. I'm pretty content about tonight. You?" Beca replies, only half paying attention to the conversation because she was scanning cars for the one that she was hoping wouldn't be there.

"Yeah, I feel about the same. Oh, there's Chloe, I gotta go, I'll see you later Beca, have a good weekend!" He says cheerily before heading towards the senior that has been bouncing around in her head all night.

"Chloe… That's a nice name…" Beca says to herself, tasting the name on her tongue, and deciding it was an appropriate name for the seemingly bubbly redhead. Beca was thinking about the older girl, whose name she now knew was Chloe when she saw her mother's black Dodge Avenger pull up in front of her. She bit her lip to keep control of her emotions, and braced herself for what was sure to be another hellacious weekend. As she opened the passenger door to get in, she cut a glance towards the last place she had seen Chloe and Benji, and after searching a bit, she saw them getting into a beat up old pick-up. Chloe glanced over her shoulder and caught Beca's eyes. From across the parking lot, Beca could've sworn she felt this- this urge to walk over there and introduce herself, but she shrugged it off, and without another thought about the senior, lowered herself into the vehicle in which her mother was waiting for her.

"Hey Honey!" Beca's mother greeted happily as Beca pulled the seat belt across herself.

"Hey Mom." Beca replied, trying to at least be civil. Her mother instantly launched into a tale about something that had occurred a few days prior, and Beca tuned her out, instead focusing on the numerous stars that were lighting up the night sky as her mother drove them back towards Beca's house. Beca sighed quietly to herself.

_It's gonna be a long weekend._

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you guys so much for the positive responses I received, it genuinely means a lot! I realized (and it was brought to my attention also) that I forgot to state that this is a high school AU, so there's that. Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter, and I hope you liked it! So, leave a review, tell me what you're thinking, for example: "Potatoes" Okay, maybe not that, but a review would still be appreciated! :) And again thank you for all of the favorites, follows, and reviews, and remember: Stay sexy ~Natt  
**_


	3. Chapter 3

Beca's weekend went just about as well as she thought it would. By the second day, she couldn't even hear her mother's voice without getting mad, and by the time she was returned home Sunday, she was exhausted. Her weeks blurred by, the only things marking time being the football games every Friday, and the out of town trips to her mother's every other weekend.

Beca still didn't talk to the senior that flitted through her head more than she cared to admit, but that changed after the second football game.

The freshman was playing along with one of the band's stand tunes when she felt someone brush against her back which elicited a gasp from the brunette as she felt like she had been shocked. She quickly turned around and looked up into bright blue, equally shocked eyes that were framed by red hair. Beca barely registered that when she had turned around she slammed her saxophone into the senior's, but she did and then apologized immediately. The older girl didn't appear to be listening, but she shook her head and seemed to refocus. She blew off the apology with a wave of her hand and a smile, saying that, "it was no big". She then said, "Hi, my name's Chloe, Chloe Beale and I like to party." while extending her hand politely. Beca had hesitated slightly before she smirked and took the older girl's hand in hers and replied, "Hey, my name's Beca, Beca Mitchell, and I _also_ like to party." Upon hearing this, Chloe's smile grew, and she asked Beca if she could share her stand music since their band director had started making flags play their instruments after the halftime show. Beca had nodded in reply, and thus, they had started a routine.

Beca couldn't explain why, but ever since that game, she had always anticipated Friday's much more.

* * *

**September**

* * *

**October**

* * *

**November**

* * *

"Can you believe this is the last game?" Benji asks, legitimately sounding sad.

"Yes, I can. I'm tired of going to practice." Jessie replies, getting a chorus of agreements form surrounding students.

"Well, yeah, but I mean, they just went by so fast. This whole school year has actually; can you believe it's already been almost four months?" Benji asks while looking completely lost by the amount of time that's flown by.

"It's barely November, and we started at the end of August, that's hardly four months." Jessie retorted. Benji opened his mouth as if he were going to reply, but just then their team scored a touchdown, so it was cut off by the fact that they all had to scramble to get their instruments and play the school song. They stood waiting to see if they needed to continue playing, but seeing their team miss the field goal, they all set their instruments back down. Beca who had opted to stay out of the conversation between the two boys glanced towards the score board to see that the team was only trailing by eight points now.

"Hey Beca, think we're gonna win?" someone off to her left asks. She looks and sees Donald standing there, his drumsticks resting loosely in his right hand with his head cocked to the side. She rolls her eyes.

"Not a chance." She replies, secretly hoping she's wrong, but not having much faith in the team.

"Man, I was hoping you wouldn't say that. It just kinda sucks that this is my last football game and it's going to be a loss." He replies, ducking his head slightly. Beca kind of understands what the senior means, but she doesn't get why it's such a big deal. Sure it means something now, but a year from now, when he's in college, and has classes, work, bills, and just other things going on, she doubts that his biggest concern would be whether or not the football team of his old high school won or lost their last game of the season.

"For real Donald! Man, I was really hoping for a win." Cynthia chimes in, sounding just as disappointed as he did. Beca took this as an opportunity to remove herself from the conversation as she withdrawals her phone from the pocket located on the inside of her band overalls.

"I don't think you're supposed to be texting right now. That's not very supportive of your team." A familiar voice chides from someone standing in front of the brunette.

"Well, the team should've thought about that before they decided to suck." Beca replies as she hits send on one of her texts before looking up at the older girl who's currently smiling and shaking her head. Wordlessly, the older girl picks up Beca's jacket, and sits down where the article of clothing had just resided and places the jacket over herself like a blanket. "You cold?" Beca asks, not sure why she actually cares.

"A little, it is winter after all." Chloe replies with a small smile.

"I don't think winter in Texas really counts as 'Winter'. We have to bust out the coats when it hits 70." The younger girl retorts. The redhead merely hums in agreement. Beca is in the process of texting Amy back about whether or not she wanted to stay the night tonight when Chloe reaches over and takes her phone out of her hands. The usual wave of anger wells up in Beca whenever someone does that, although, it was notably less than usual, but it still ticked her off. "Give it back." She demands, her tone cold and hard. Chloe glances over at her with wary eyes as she seems to be weighing something.

"One second, I'm not doing anything bad." The older girl states, not evening moving to give Beca back her phone. The brunette clenches her fists slightly, but decides for some reason that she believes the senior, and makes no move to grab her phone. A few seconds later Chloe hands her the phone back, and the screen shows Chloe's name with a smiley face next to it, along with her number below it. "Since we won't be able to talk at football games anymore." Chloe elaborats, smiling proudly as if this had been the greatest plan she has ever had. Beca chewed her lip in thought, choosing her words in her head.

"Yeah, cool, thanks, but for future reference. If you want to see my phone, ask. I'll give it to you, but just taking it like that irritates me." Beca replies, a small smile on her face to show the senior that she wasn't pissed, but it felt more like a grimace on her face.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad I just-"

"No, it didn't make me mad. It takes a lot more than that to make me **mad**, just, ask next time okay?" Beca interrupts and reassures the other girl. In reply Chloe merely nods as a smile slowly makes its way onto her face. Before Beca can ask why she's smiling the final buzzer goes off, and that's the ball game. Everyone begins gathering their things, and the moment's gone and forgotten within the time span it takes to stand up and stretch.

_Will I text her? Better yet, **should** I text her?_ Beca contemplates as she begins dismantling her sax and placing it in its case.

"Hey Beca, here's your jacket." Chloe says while holding it out, disrupting the younger girl's thoughts. Beca reaches out and as she wraps her fingers around the article of clothing, her fingers brush against Chloe's, and there's that faint tingling feeling that accompanies physical contact with the senior. They both stand there momentarily, as if, they both feel it, and are unsure what to make of it. Beca steels her nerves and retracts her hand away from the redhead slowly, as if she was a wild animal and she was afraid that any sudden moves would scare her. Chloe blinks multiple times and shakes her head before she plasters on a smile that practically has "Fake" written across it.

"Yeah thanks. See ya around." Beca dismisses as she closes her case and abruptly turns around to begin walking to where the busses are parked.

_I don't think it'd hurt if I texted her at least once…_

* * *

**A few days later…**

Beca yanked her headphones off, groaning and sighing as her frustration mounted. She just couldn't get in the zone tonight. She was trying to make a mix from her usual materials, but she just wasn't feeling it. In all honesty, she wanted to try and mix music that she had just started listening to thanks to a certain senior.

* * *

**Flashback**

_During the practice for the band competition a few months ago, Beca was introduced to a new tradition. Everyone showed up at the football field to get one practice in, whether it was good or bad, it was only one, and then everyone went to a restaurant for breakfast. _

_The destination was Kate's Kafe, and Beca was sitting with her instrument group when she noticed that Chloe had went and gotten herself a pen and pad, and she was taking people's orders. After everyone was done eating, and people began to leave, Beca decided to stay and help Chloe clean up. _

"_Stupid trumpets. Looks like a bunch of little kids were eating here." Beca had commented as she stacked up plates. Chloe had looked at her as if she had grown a third eye. _

"_What are you doing?" she asked, almost sounding completely lost._

"_I'm helping you." Beca replied with a smirk as she picked up the stack of plates and carried them around to the tub that they were supposed to go in. _

"_Why? No wait, stop, you don't have to." Chloe said as she quickly walked to intercept Beca on her way to the bin. _

"_Chloe, I don't __**have**__ to do anything. I'm doing this because I want to. Now, get out of my way please, these aren't exactly light." Beca retorted as she sidestepped the older girl who still had a very confused facial expression. The brunette ignored the older girl's stare as she went back to the table and began gathering all the glasses. _

"_You're the only person who's ever done this…" Chloe says, so quietly that Beca wasn't exactly sure she had meant to say it aloud. _

"_Well give me a second and I'll change that." Beca says quickly before briskly walking out of the restaurant, and returning moments later with Benji in tow. _

"_Chloe, if you needed help, why didn't you just ask?" Benji asks as he goes to the table where the flutes had been sitting and started stacking their plates. Beca continued her task of getting the glasses off of the table while Chloe just stood there. _

"_You gonna help, or are you gonna let us do all of the heavy lifting?" Beca jokes as she walks past Chloe to place the cups in their respective bin. Chloe clears her throat before she gets back to work, clearing off the table that had seated the french horns. Between the three of them, they had the room cleaned, and the tables put back where they were supposed to go within thirty minutes. Once they were finished, Beca had walked out and was just about to call her father to come get her when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She tensed at the touch, but a warm current forced her to relax a second later. _

"_What are you doing?" Chloe asked, a humored tone to her voice. Beca inhaled, preparing for the irritation that she feels every time someone asks her that, but it never came, so she just replied that she was going to call her dad to come get her. "You stay and help me clean up after a bunch of messy high school kids, and you don't think I'm giving you a ride?" The older girl asked, a mischievous glint in her eyes accompanied by a smirk. An image of the older girl giving her a different kind of ride entered Beca's mind, and it took all of her self-control not to push off Chloe's hand that was still on her shoulder, that moments prior she had all but forgotten, but right then she was too painfully aware of._

"_Oh. Um, thanks." Beca mumbled out, praying that the burning she felt across her cheeks was just in her head, but when she saw Chloe's smirk grow, she wasn't so sure it was. Luckily, before Beca had to analyze the situation any further, Benji walked out and asked Chloe for a ride back to the band hall so that he could help out with the band competition. With that, the three teens had climbed into Chloe's old pick-up, and Chloe had insisted that Beca ride shotgun. The senior had opted to drop Benji off first, and then proceeded to scare Beca with her horrible, but thrilling driving. Beca had been sitting there, the cool morning air flowing through her hair, while some rock song that sounded really familiar had blasted through Chloe's speakers. Beca had debated whether or not to get Chloe to drop her off at her house, or somewhere else since she didn't like random people knowing where she lived, but she decided against it, and settled with getting dropped off at home. _

_Upon pulling up in front of her house, Chloe had turned down the music, and inhaled deeply. Beca merely waited to see if she had anything to say. _

"_Thank you for helping today. I would still be there, and I know you don't think it was a big deal, but it means a lot to me that you did that." She confessed, sounding way too emotional in Beca's opinion. _

"_No problem. Thanks for the ride." Beca said, wanting to get away before she acts awkward due to the emotion. The brunette saw something flicker behind those impossibly blue eyes before a smirk made its way onto the senior's face. _

"_No problem, by the way, you look kinda cute when you blush." She said, her smirk turning into a shit eating grin. Beca felt a familiar burn run across her cheeks before she quickly clambered out of the vehicle, hastily throwing a wave over her shoulder before she went into her house. Despite the embarrassment, Beca didn't forget the songs she heard in Chloe's truck, so she quickly looked them up, and figured out why they sounded familiar. _

_They were both songs by Falling in Reverse, a rock band that she had listened to before, but she could never talk herself into buying their songs before. Remembering how good they sounded though, she couldn't help it when her cursor had drifted over the button that read, "Buy album"._

* * *

Coming back to the present, Beca decided that she needed to get this mix out of her system or she wouldn't be able to get any other ones done. She saved the one she was working on, and opened up a new file, a blank slate that had infinite possibilities.

About an hour later, she had a mix using "I'm Not a Vampire" and "The Drug in Me is You" as the two main songs, with multiple layers, and she was fairly happy with it thus far. She was about to go to bed until her phone chimed. She reached into her back pocket and grabbed the rectangular device, and gasped slightly when she saw "Chloe:) " written across her screen, and she was completely baffled when she felt a smile force its way onto her face as a warm feeling swelled in her chest upon seeing the name.

_What the hell is wrong with me? I don't like her like that… Do I?_

Taking a deep breath, she unlocked her phone with slightly shaky hands.

* * *

_**A/N: CLIFFHANGER! What does Chloe have to say?! Did she mean to leave out "home" when referencing that she'd give Beca a ride?! Does she really think Beca looks cute when she blushes?! The suspense! I can't! *dies* **_

_***comes back to life***_

_**We'll just have to wait and see I suppose! T-T**_

_**I know that the story is dragging (or at least it is to me), but it's necessary to set up the rest of the story, so please bear with me. Also, this story is going to include a wide variety of music and songs in it, so if you feel like checking any of the songs out that are mentioned throughout, that'd be cool. **_

_**Once again, I have to thank everyone who takes the time to favorite, follow, and review this story, it means a lot that you have enough interest in it to do so, and I am genuinely thankful for the support. So, with that said, I shall be on my way, and I hope that you find a really shiny penny sometime soon! Stay sexy ~Natt**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey :)**

_Well, that was a little anti-climactic… _Beca rolls her eyes at her behavior before replying with a similar "Hey", but without the smiley face. _They're not really my thing._ Moments later, Beca's phone is buzzing with a reply.

**What're you doing? :)**

Beca waits to feel her stomach heave in disgust as she reads the message, but it doesn't, instead a gentle swirling motion is taking place in the hollow of her abdomen. _I fucking hate that question… Why does it never bother me when she asks? _It was true, the brunette hated any question that she felt invaded her privacy. "What are you doing?", "Where are you?" and, "Who are talking to?" being the top three offenders. She couldn't help it though, her parents would normally ask her these questions repeatedly, without so much as a greeting first. So now, even if Amy asks her this, Beca feels irritation swell up inside of her small frame.

**Listening to music. You?**

Beca replied, keeping it short and to the point.

**At the basketball game. :P**

Beca mulled over her reply, but upon looking at the clock decided she needed to get a shower. She forgot that she hadn't texted the older girl back, and couldn't help the slightly disappointed feeling she got in her stomach when her phone never chimed that she had a text.

Once in bed, she decided to see when Chloe had read her message since the redhead had her read receipt turned on. _Not because she cared that she hadn't texted back or anything like that. She was just curious. _Beca wanted to slap her forehead when she realized that the stall in the conversation was her own fault. She quickly sent a text apologizing for not texting back, saying that she had been in the shower and had forgotten.

**Oh okay, I was kinda sad that you didn't text back…**

The freshman re-read the text multiple times, and not once did it cease to make her smile a little bit. Beca debated on whether or not to tell Chloe that she had felt the same way, but deciding that that sounded _**way**_ too queerballs, decided not to. She merely told the older girl that she would text her in the morning, and that she was going to bed.

**Promise? ;)**

Beca chewed her lip momentarily before sighing tiredly.

**I don't make promises. They're stupid. So you're just going to have to take my word for it. **

**Oh… Well, I'll just keep my fingers crossed then. Goodnight Bec! **

**Yeah, night Chloe. **

_She called me Bec… _The brunette didn't necessarily have a problem with the nickname, but it was more or less only a family thing. None of her friends called her that, and she was perfectly fine with that. _Do I have a problem with her calling me that? I guess not, it's just kind of weird._ Beca couldn't help but wonder why the older girl was so… Invasive, or if she even knew she was. Trying not to think of how weird it was that she was thinking about the senior before falling asleep, Beca closed her eyes and let her conscious slip away, leaving a void that was nightly filled with nightmares.

* * *

**A couple of days later…**

**Your birthday is in two days! :D Why didn't you say anything?! **

Beca blinks against the bright screen of her phone in contrast to the blackness that had been her closed eyes moments ago. She glances up at the clock that's on her iPod dock that sits atop her nightstand table that shows the date and time. "10:13 PM, 11-10-12" _Huh, I'll be damned. _

**I didn't realize, and plus, I don't really like celebrating my birthday. It's kind of stupid. **

***gasp* How is it stupid?! **

The brunette rolls her eyes and smiles slightly when she sees Chloe conveying physical action in her text. _She totes picked that up from me. Did I just say "totes"? Damnit Chloe._

**I'm supposed to celebrate being a year closer to death? That's stupid. It's just another Tuesday.**

**That's a little… depressing. It's a special day! It's the day that you were brought into this world Bec! That's something worth celebrating! **

**I mean, I guess… On a completely unrelated note: Why do you call me Bec? **

**Oh, I don't know… Do you not want me to? **

**Oh dude no, it's not that, I was just curious because no one else besides family calls me that. **

**Mmm, well I like it because it's cute. **

**Oh. Okay then. **

**Yeah, but I can totes quit if you want me to.**

**No, that's alright, I was just wondering… I'm gonna go to bed now. Goodnight Chloe. **

**Goodnight Becs, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite, sweet dreams! **

Quirking an eyebrow at the goodnight message before dismissing it as "Chloe being Chloe" and then locking her phone, Beca lays down and wonders how she spent literally the whole weekend texting the older girl. Beca had kept her word and texted the redhead Saturday morning, and then the conversation had been surprisingly easy, and never felt forced, so it just continued from the moment they woke up until the moment they went to sleep. No, literally, when "they" went to sleep. Both of them hadn't wanted to be the person to say bye, so they just agreed to go to bed together, so that it was a mutual agreement. Beca was surprised at how easy Chloe was to talk to. Never in a million years would she have seen herself texting the senior, but now she could see them being decent friends. Apparently so could Chloe as she had told Beca that she thought that they were going to be, "fast friends". Mind occupied about the weekend's events, Beca didn't even remember falling asleep, she did however, remember waking up scared, covered in sweat, and sitting up quick enough to make her head swim as she tried to catch her breath.

* * *

"How was your weekend Fat Amy?" Jesse asks as he slides to sit next to the blonde in their first period algebra class.

"It was alright, from what I can remember." She replies with a slight smirk directed at Beca who merely rolls her eyes at her friend's antics, but she can't help but laugh when she sees Jesse's face as he connects the implied dots.

"Hey guys, can we keep it down while I'm talking please? Thank you." Mr. Andrews says as he cuts a look straight at a baffled looking Jesse and Fat Amy who is currently doing a very good impression of looking shocked at the accusation. Beca is about to make a snide comment at their teacher's expense, but she feels her phone vibrate in her jacket pocket. Making sure that Mr. Andrews was preoccupied explaining the difference between a positive and a negative slope, she pulls out her phone to see that another student of Barden High has disregarded the "no texting in class" rule.

**Good morning Bec! :)**

**Texting during class? You're not setting a very good example for me you know. :/ ;)**

**Oh, you're fine. And if anyone is the bad example in this friendship, I think we both know who it is. ;)**

**Mmm, you've got a point there. By the way, good morning Chloe. :)**

Their conversation kept up throughout the class, but it didn't prohibit Beca from being the first to turn in her paper, followed by Benji, Fat Amy, and Jesse.

"This 'Advanced Algebra' class is a joke." Fat Amy says as she inspects her nails, bored as hell. The statement is followed by a chorus of, uh huh's from her three friends and a few dirty looks from the kids who had no clue what they were doing, the only reason for them being in the class in the first place being because they cheated on damn near every assignment that was handed out.

"Hey Beca, who're you talking to?" Jesse asks as he tries to lean over and read over her shoulder. Beca feels a wave of heat wash through her, and she clenches her fists around her phone to avoid punching the poor boy as he invades her space in two ways at once.

"No one, now back up before I make you." She says, looking up at him so that he knows she's not kidding.

"Yeah popsicle stick, she doesn't like it when people are up in her grill." Fat Amy reaffirms, sounding friendly, but the undercurrent of her tone that practically says, _"Back up, she's not kidding, and I'd hate to have to pull her off of you."_ Makes her words sound almost backhanded. Jesse swallows loudly, and resembling a dog that has just been scolded and has folded his tail between his legs slowly leans back towards his seat.

"Sorry Jesse, it's just a pet peeve of mine." Beca explains, feeling slightly bad for causing that hurt look in his eyes. Upon her apology however, he seems to cheer up immediately.

"Naw, I totally get it. We've all got them." He says with a smile that's almost painful to look at it's so big. _Jesse, god you're killing me. _The younger Beale has shown an off and on interest in Beca since the seventh grade, and it was old to Beca then, and it's still old now. But no matter how many times she tells Jesse that they're only ever going to be friends, he just doesn't seem to get it. Fortunately, the bell rings just then so Beca isn't forced to sit right next to him anymore. _**Unfortunately**_, he has her Advanced English class next too. "Did you see the commercial for that new movie that's coming out in a few months?" He asks excitedly as he stands up and holds the door open for the brunette who's trying really hard not to roll her eyes.

"Nope. I don't watch a whole lot of TV remember?" She says, for what has to be the thousandth time, she's sure. He doesn't even seem deterred by her reply.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Well, how about we go to see the movie when it comes out?" He asks, smiling at her with that too big smile again.

"Don't like movies either remember?"

"Oh come on! That's so unfair!"

"How is me not liking movies, 'unfair'?"

"How am I supposed to take you on the best date ever if you won't go to the theatre with me?" He asks with a sly smile- or what was supposed to come off as sly Beca guessed, because it definitely missed the mark and instead looked more along the lines of constipated.

"Hmm, good question. Guess it's just not gonna happen. Damn." Beca replies while shaking her head in fake disappointment, knowing that it was a bit rude, but she can't help it as she feels her patience begin to wear terribly thin. He opens his mouth to reply, but before he can Beca is enveloped by a flash of red and loud giggles.

"You didn't text me back!" Chloe whines with a pout as she pulls back from hugging the completely shocked freshman. Beca tries to reply, but words just aren't coming forth at the moment due to the fact that her whole body is tingling and she feels a little breathless, and she decides to blame it on the fact that the senior scared her. "Did I break you?" Chloe asks with a smirk on her face.

"No, you just took me by surprise that's all." Beca lies smoothly.

"You were texting my sister?" Jesse asks, effectively ruining Beca's sudden good mood.

"Is it any of your business who she's texting Jesse?" Chloe asks, sounding a bit defensive and Beca can't help the flattered smile that slowly tilts the ends of her mouth upwards. Jesse just looks confused and shakes his head before sulking off to class. "Sorry about him. I know how you like your privacy and stuff, but he doesn't really care about any of that." Chloe apologizes looking genuinely embarrassed. Beca merely scoffs before sidestepping the redhead and continuing down the hall towards her class. "What?" Chloe asks as she quickly catches up the younger girl. The younger girl debates whether or not to call Chloe out on her hypocrisy, but the more she thought about it, Chloe's imposition on her privacy wasn't necessarily annoying. Different yes, but not really in a bad way like Jesse's was.

"You just have no idea." Beca replies vaguely, and before Chloe can ask any more questions, they're standing at the door to the shorter girl's class. Beca is about to cross the threshold to the classroom, but a hand grabbing onto her wrist effectively stops her. She turns around to see a shy looking Chloe standing there, her hand still wrapped around Beca's wrist. _Chloe, shy? That's a first._

"Can I get a hug?" Chloe asks, sounding almost unsure for the first time that Beca can recall. She quickly weighs the options, and mentally kicks herself before smiling at the redhead and nodding her head before letting the older girl envelope her in a hug. To Beca's surprise, and somewhat pride, she only hesitates for a second before she returns the embrace. The freshman deciding the hug was over pulls back and tries not to notice the tingling that's making her smile goofily and trying to explain why she misses the warmth of the hug already.

* * *

**A/N: **Oh gosh Beca, you're getting... "The Tingles"! Everyone knows what happens when you get The Tingles (Except for the people who get them...) Maybe if you watched more movies you'd get the hint? *Sighs and shakes head sadly because Beca is inept at love*

Hi everybody! :) Alright, before I forget! As most of you know, July 22 is Miss Chloe Beale's birthday, (Happy early birthday Chlo!) but in this story her birthday is going to take place in November, so I just wanted to clear that up and state that, yes, I know that it's going to clash, but that's just the way this story is written, so, sorry in advance for the inaccuracy. (In my defense, I think I could make an argument that this is an AU, so let's just go with that, yeah?)

Another thing, I have two possible endings for this story in my head, one's happy, and one's not... I prefer happy endings personally, (when I'm reading other stories) but I wanted to swing the idea by you guys, and if you could PM me/leave a review saying what you'd prefer, that'd be great.

Also, can we just take a moment to tell Jesse to back the hell up? AMIRIGHT?!

Alright, enough of my ramblings, I'll let you get back to your lives of being undercover spies, and just amazing people in general. Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter and let me know what you thought about it, yeah? :) And as always, stay sexy~ Natt


	5. Chapter 5

Hands cover her eyes, and it takes every bit of self-control she has to not twist around and throw a punch at where she would guess the person's face would be. The only reasons she doesn't are, A) She doesn't feel like going to the principal's office before school even starts, and B) She feels a familiar electric feeling coursing through her face now.

"Guess who." Is whispered against her pierced ear, and she has to fight the urge to shiver at the sensation. She tries to block the image of the person gently nipping at her earlobe, and then tugging lightly before taking her headphones off for her, and placing light kisses on her neck before drifting forward to the slope of her jaw, and then- _Damn hormones._

"The creepy neighbor who keeps winking at me every time I see him?" Beca says sarcastically and smiles when she feels the person behind her shake with laughter. _I love it when she laughs. I love it even more when I'm the reason. What's happening to me?_

"Wrong… And no one **_better_ **be winking at you." She adds, almost as an afterthought.

"Why not?" Beca asks, intrigued by the older girl's tone, since it could only be described as jealous.

"Beca, you're not very good at guessing who people are."

"Chloe, I already know it's you, so there's not really a point." Beca replies, chuckling at her friend's childlike behavior.

"How'd you know it was me?" She asks as she removes her hands from the brunette's eyes, revealing that she was currently sporting a very cute pout. Still pouting she sits down on the vacant stool that's on Beca's right side.

"Multiple ways."

"Name them."

"Your voice for one."

"Mmm, yeah, I can see that one. Alright, next."

"Your perfume."

"Darn it. Next."

"The warmth." Beca says before she realizes it. She feels her eyes widen slightly before she schools her expression into her usual neutral one.

"The what?" Chloe asks, sounding almost… _disbelieving?_

"Your hands are always really warm." Beca replies, mentally high-fiving herself for the save. She watches as Chloe's expression seems to drop slightly before Chloe hides her reaction behind a smile.

"Crap. Well, thanks for crushing my dreams of wanting to be a spy."

"Anytime."

"Ass."

"Rude."

"Oh, hold on wait!" Chloe shouts as she turns around and begins digging in her bag. "Close your eyes." She demands, and normally Beca doesn't let herself be bossed around like that, but something about the girl's tone told her not to argue. Beca heard some shuffling, but other than that, nothing. "Open them." Beca did as she was told, and was presented with the sight of Chloe handing her a red envelope. Chloe's smile reminded Beca of Jesse's because of how big it was, but it wasn't painful to look at by any means. In fact, it had Beca smiling back at the older girl. "Come on Becs! Open it!" Chloe almost begs, waving the envelope in her hand for good measure.

"What's this for?" Beca asks as she takes it from the redhead.

"Your birthday of course!"

"Chloe, I told you not to-"

"I do what I want." Chloe replies while cutting off Beca's expected reply. The brunette can't help but smirk at the reply since both girls say it over and over in their conversations. With a defeated sigh Beca opens the envelope and takes out a card with a grey and black kitten wearing a pair of headphones on its head on the front with a yellow background. "It's a special occasion today! Do you know what that means?" Was written in large green block letters across the top. Beca gingerly opened the card to find a $25 iTunes card sitting comfortably in a slot cut for gift cards on the left side and on the right side there was the same kitten but this time it was pawing at a large bass fish, and in the same font "It's time to drop the bass!" was written along the top edge. Beca couldn't help but laugh at how awful the joke was.

"Wow, thanks Chloe, that was, the present is awesome, but the card was really, _**really**_ corny." Beca says, still shaking her head at the card. Chloe's smile grows slightly if that was even possible.

"I know, but I thought the kitten looked like you, and it was cute!" She says, taking the card from Beca and smiling at it.

"How does that cat look like me?"

"It's got kinda dark'ish fur, like your clothes, and really pretty kind of grey'ish eyes." Chloe replies sounding like it should be obvious.

"You think my eyes are pretty?" Beca asks as she dramatically flutters her eyelashes as she's seen one too many girls do around guys they liked.

"Well yeah, because they are." She replies sounding so serious that it shocks Beca into silence. The bell rings breaking the moment, but Beca notices the blush that tinges her friend's cheeks as she stands up to grab her stuff. They're walking to class, and Beca can feel that her friend feels awkward now, but Beca was never good with taking compliments, and Chloe seemed so sincere about hers that it left Beca completely lost on how to handle it.

"Thanks Chloe. I always thought you had really pretty eyes too you know." Beca says as she pulls back from their routine hug before parting ways to go to class, and Chloe's smile makes the brunette feel like she didn't completely fuck something up for once.

* * *

"What're you doing this weekend?" Jesse asks, looking at Beca with excited eyes. She wanted to punch him in the nose until she felt it crack and cave beneath her knuckles. At the beginning of class he asked Mr. Andrews if he could make an announcement to the class. The teacher not knowing any better, agreed. He had told the whole class that it was her birthday, and then he got everyone to sing, "Happy Birthday" to her. She was less than pleased to say the least.

"I don't know." She answered while trying to get Fat Amy's attention to see if she could get her friend to bail her out of this conversation, but the blonde was too busy flirting with one of their classmates to notice.

"I was thinking-"

"Well, that was dangerous."

"Uh, yeah… Anyway, I was thinking that this weekend- since your birthday is in the middle of the week, and that's no fun- that we could go to the movies?"

"Jessie, Barden doesn't have a theatre, and you don't have a car."

"Well yeah, but Chloe said that she'd take us up to Treble City, but only if you said yes." He replied, embarrassed that he had to ask his older sister to take him and his- if you asked him- destined wife on their first date. Beca didn't care about any of that however because she was wondering what exactly Chloe was thinking. She knew, just as well as Jesse that she didn't like movies, so why would she say that she'd take them unless there was something else too.

"Let me think about it." Beca said noncommittally just as the bell rang. Beca practically ran out of the room, and in no time was in the other side of the small school building where Chloe's first period was. As the senior left her World Geography class and saw her friend a large smile broke out across her face but quickly faded as she noticed that Beca looked ticked. "You know I hate movies." Beca accuses a tad louder than she meant to, causing some of the other students that just emerged from their classes to linger to see what was going on.

"Yeah I do… And?" Chloe asks nervously, eyes switching from Beca to the kids who were somewhat watching them, and then back to the ticked freshman, where they remained.

"_**And**_ you told Jesse that you'd take us to the movies this weekend if I said yes. Why?" Beca asked, getting more and more irritated as the seconds ticked by. Understanding bloomed across the older girl's face.

"I know you hate movies Becs, but Jesse doesn't seem to care. Frankly, I think he only wants to go so that he can see that stupid movie- I mean seriously, you should hear him at home- and so the condition was if you said yes, because I knew you wouldn't. It was a bit dishonest of me, I'll admit, but I mean, it's supposed to be for your birthday, so it should be something that _**you**_ want to do." She explains, sounding guilty. Beca stands there for a moment before slowly starting to smile.

"Well, alright then." The brunette concludes, smiling relieved that Chloe wasn't going to be one of the people that forced her into things she didn't want to do- not that Beca thought she would be, but Jesse kind of scared her there for a second.

"You're not mad?" Chloe asks looking like she didn't actually want to hear the answer. Beca shakes her head in reply before hugging Chloe while telling her that it was a "Mom Weekend", so she wouldn't have been able to go with them anyway. "Did you tell Jesse that?" the older girl asks, and now it's Beca's turn to look guilty.

"No, I told him I didn't know what I was doing this weekend because I don't want him knowing my business." She answers, feeling guilty for lying, but thinking it was for a good enough reason. Chloe bites her lip for a moment while she thinks, and Beca has to look away to avoid a barrage of images that are trying to flood her mind with the older girl's actions.

"I'll tell him that you had something come up."

"Well no, because then he'll think that I wanted to go in the first place, and that'll just give him hope."

"No, I'm going to tell him that you said no, but also that something came up, so that he won't try to 'convince' you to go." Chloe explains, and Beca would be lying if she said that she was impressed by how she had thought ahead that far.

"Thanks Chlo, now go to class before you're tardy." Beca says as she pushes the older girl away from herself and towards the older girl's classroom.

"You called me Chlo!" The redhead practically yells as she wraps Beca in a bone crushing hug, earning the glances from the few students who are straggling between classes, and Beca feels her cheeks flush with heat.

"Yeah I did, now let go or it won't ever happen again." Beca warns before deftly being released. Chloe smiles that really big smile that apparently is a Beale thing- Chloe's taking the cake by far- before she leans in and places a quick kiss against Beca's right cheek and then turns on her heel to go to class. _If I thought my cheeks were red before…_ Beca resists the urge to bring her fingertips up to her cheek that practically feels like it's on fire, but not because of her blush.

A few minutes into her English teacher's lecture the focused fire that had been raging under her skin eventually faded into the usual tingles she got when she touched Chloe, and then it faded to nothing. _So kissing is better than just touching… _

_I knew it!_ _Well, not that I had been, debating it or, anything… _

Beca begins mulling her lower lip between her teeth, trying to figure out what provoked such odd reactions out of her when she was around her older friend. Or why the redhead was an exception to a lot of the things that usually bothered her, such as invading her personal space. Figuring that she'd have an easier time understanding what was going on in class if that's where she put her focus, she was able to push her question to the back of her mind. But it was still there, and it was still persistently calling her attention back to it at irregular intervals, and every time she asked herself, she wasn't able to formulate an answer.

_What is it with Chloe Beale?_

* * *

**A week later, November 20…**

"Happy birthday Chlo." Beca says as she slides a small black across her lunch table that the senior just happens to be visiting due to a certain freshman.

"Aww! Becs, you didn't have to!"

"I do what I want."

"Shut up!"

"Is it a ring? Are you guys _**finally**_ getting married?" Fat Amy interrupts, and Beca can't help the burn that travels across her face and also notices how Chloe looks away momentarily.

"You jealous Amy? Jealous that you don't get- all of this?" Beca asks winking at her best friend while running her hands up and down her torso in a seductive manner. If she had been paying attention, she would have noticed how Chloe's eyes followed the movements of her hands over the tight black material that made up her sweater, and also how the redhead's eyes noticeably darkened a few shades when she swallowed.

"Not a chance DJ, I'm perfectly happy with dick thank you very much. Although, if I swung that way, I'd probably be very jealous, because let's face it, I have a beautiful best friend." Amy replies, smiling at her best friend's behavior.

Whether or not the two girls would admit it, the blonde knew that they were good for each other. It hadn't even been a month since they started talking, and Beca's mood has improved overall so much, and she's not exactly sure about how Chloe was before she met Beca, but she knew that whenever the two were around each other, they were all smiles.

"Speaking of DJ, I really liked your picture for English Beca!" Benji chimes in from a few seats down the table.

"Yeah me too!" Lilly comments, and Beca has to ask her to repeat herself while leaning in really close- almost in the other girl's lap- in order to hear her the second time.

"Thanks guys!" Beca replies while smiling unsure, being actually very happy with the way the picture had turned out, but still not able to take compliments well.

"What picture?" Chloe asks while feeling terribly left out.

"In English today, Mr. Bivins made us draw a picture representing what we wanted to be when we grew up. I drew turntables and on the records I put a "D" and "J"." Beca answers smiling since she wanted to be a DJ more than anything.

"That's so cool! Why didn't you ever tell me?" Chloe asks sounding almost hurt.

"It never really came up… I'm sorry." Beca says, not knowing what else to say since she evidently hurt her friend's feelings. "But I'm sure your birthday present will _**totes**_ make up for it!" Beca says, winking at her friend.

Chloe perked up at the aspect and all but ripped open the little box to find a flash drive with a small piece of paper that said, "Happy birthday Chlo" written in neat and pretty handwriting.

"What is it?" She asks feeling kind of stupid for not knowing.

"Take it home, plug it in, and let it play." Beca answers, hiding her unease as to whether or not Chloe would actually like it behind a confident smirk.

Chloe planned on doing just that.

* * *

**I love you! Like, so hard! 3**

Beca ignored the way her heart had skipped a beat when she read the message.

**You liked them?**

**Liked them? Beca, I loved them, like, I'm in love with them. I am going to marry these.**

**Ha, I'm glad. Happy birthday Chlo. :)**

**Best birthday gift EVER! :)**

"Beca, who are you talking to?" a male voice asks her just as she hears her bedroom door open to her left. She bites the inside of her cheek in order to not snap something sarcastic to her father.

"Chloe."

"Who's that?"

"A friend of mine Dad."

"Oh okay. Well, I was just going to remind you about this weekend."

"Like I could forget. Thanks though." Beca says, and Mr. Mitchell not having anything else to say, turns on his heel and pushes his daughter's room door closed. He sighs tiredly before running a hand through his hair to linger on the back of his neck. He doesn't know how to handle the moody brunette that is on the other side of the door he was currently propped against, and it kills him.

In Beca's defense, she has seemed much happier, and _**much**_more patient as a result, but the fact that he didn't know why was just another pointer to the fact that he never communicated with his daughter. _I wonder... It couldn't be because of a boy could it...? _Mr. Mitchell mulls over the possibility of his daughter letting some hormonal teenage boy close to her, and he doesn't like it. Not one bit. _As if she'd even let you have a say in the matter... Maybe I should ask her about it sometime...  
_ Content with his plan, he quietly walked away from Beca's bedroom and began preparing himself to go to bed.

* * *

Beca was listening to "Dakota" by A Rocket to the Moon as she packed for her weekend sentence at her mother's. Apparently her dad had something come up, and it required him to be gone all weekend, and instead of leaving Beca at home, had volunteered her to go to her mother's again.

Despite her current activity, she was smiling. She loved this song because Chloe and she had been driving around one night when Chloe had heard this song start playing through her truck speakers to which she had quickly turned up the volume and told Beca that this song reminded her of her before she started singing it to the stunned freshman.

One of the main things that had stolen the brunette's breath was Chloe's voice. It was so... Perfect. Beca would give anything to have Chloe sing for her so that she could use the older girl's voice in a few of her mixes, but instead of focusing on that, she focused on the words her friend had been singing at that exact moment.

It was a love song, that fact had surprised Beca to say the least, but she dismissed it, and decided that Chloe had been referring to the fact that the song was about how they hadn't known each other long, but that he knew he loved her.

But Chloe had been referring to a platonic love of course. Beca can't help the dejected thought that echoes in her head at this.

_Of course… _

* * *

**_A/N: Yo, sorry for any typos or grammar errors, I have a feeling I missed a few. Also, is that birthday card, like, a thing? Because I want one. :3 If it's not, I really think someone should make it into a thing. :T (Just my opinion though!)_**

**_Thank you, if you've taken the time to review, favorite, and/or follow this story, it's what keeps me motivated! (hint, hint, wink, nudge) ;) _**

**_Fun Fact: While I was typing "motivated", a big ass bug landed on my bare stomach, and I freaked out and yelled, "Oh shit!". (Learn something new everyday yeah?)_**

**_Alright, stay sexy guys ~Natt_**


	6. Chapter 6

"Worried about a hater? Not me. Turn to the max, no sleep. Smoke a hundred joints to the face, give a fuck what a bitch nigga say, everything 'bout me!" Beca sings along quietly while glancing through her closet to decide what she wanted to wear that day. She grabs her red and black plaid button up and a pair of light grey skinny jeans and then steps out of the small space, closing the door behind her. She slips the shirt on over her black tank top, leaving it unbuttoned and rolls the sleeves up to her elbow. Once she has her pants pulled on, she walks over to her bookcase and reaches down to the last shelf- where she keeps her shoes- and grabs her red high-top Converse. While she's lacing them up, she hears a knock on her door.

"Hey Becs, you uh, got a minute?" Mr. Mitchell asks as he gingerly crosses the threshold into her room, looking like he was afraid that the hardwood flooring beneath him would suddenly open up and swallow him. _That'd be interesting._ Beca can't help the slight smirk that tilts the corner of her lips up.

"Yeah, sure Dad." Beca assures as she rises from the foot of her bed and walks over to her mini-fridge where her headphones are currently sitting. Just as she gently pulls her hair out from underneath her headphones that are now currently resting on her neck, her phone chimes with a tweeting sound. Beca's head instantly perks at the noise, that text tone being for Chloe specifically, and now she can't help the stupid grin that makes her feel all warm.

"Who's texting you at, 5:30 in the morning?" The older Mitchell asks. While gritting her teeth against the intrusive question, she curtly replies that it's Chloe. "Why is Chloe texting you so early?"

"I don't know Dad, because she's up I guess."

"Well, you guys sure do talk a lot."

"Yeah… And?"

"Oh nothing, I was just wondering… Are you sure it's Chloe?" Beca quirks an eyebrow at the question.

"Yeah Dad, prettysure. Why?"

"Well, I was just thinking… That if you had a boy, who happened to mean something to you… More than a friend, that I'd like to know." Mr. Mitchell finishes lamely. The older man notices his daughter's shoulders instantly tense, her whole physical demeanor changing from "irritated" to "about-to-kill-someone" in mere seconds.

"Why do you think I'd have a boyfriend Dad?" Beca asks, her tone clipped and taut. The older man pauses momentarily to try and word his thoughts correctly, lest he and his daughter have an argument that would no doubt ruin both of their days.

"Well, you just seem happier in general, and you're always on your phone now, so I just assumed that someone had finally caught your eye."

"Dad, for the _**thousandth**_ time, I'm not making the mistake that you and Mom did. I-"

"Look Beca, what happened between your mother and I does not mean it's going to happen to everyone. We just had disagreements that couldn't be solved. I wanted to come home to a happy child, and a loving wife. She wanted to steal all of our things and shoot up drugs." Mr. Mitchell inhales sharply through his teeth; this conversation was not at all going how he had wanted it to. Taking another deep breath to collect himself, he tries again. "I'm sorry, that was out of line, but the point is, that your mother and I tried to make it work Beca. We did… But it just wasn't meant to be, but I'd do it all over again if it meant that I'd still get you Becs."

Beca tries not to scoff in her father's face.

She couldn't understand where this man was coming from. He was talking as if the divorce didn't affect him in anyway whatsoever, but Beca knew better. She remembered everything that had happened, prior to the divorce, and after. When he kicked Rachael out, Beca hadn't really been surprised, in fact, she'd been quiet thankful.

She was tired of the screaming contests that would take place between the two adults, she'd wake up and lie in bed, listening and wondering when it was going to end. Some nights were worse than others, sometimes a loud shattering noise would pierce the air and Beca would pull the covers over her head where she would rock herself back and forth, quietly singing any song that came to mind in order to drown out her parents.

For her eighth birthday, her parents had bought her, her first portable CD player. That was when she started sleeping with her headphones on, because the music did _**such** _a better job blocking out her parents than wishful thinking did.

She remembers all the times her mother had promised her that "she'd get clean this time", that "all of that bad stuff was all in the past", only to turn around and break her promise, along with Beca's heart every time. After the tenth" last chance", Beca decided that promises were worthless, that they didn't mean anything, that if someone was going to do something, that they would just do it, instead of making empty promises.

Her father had started staying out later, claiming that he had a lot of papers to grade at the university in the town over, and that they just _**had **_to be done, which would leave Beca alone with her mother most of the time. Beca couldn't really blame the man though, had she been old enough, she would've stayed at work too. But that doesn't change the fact that he had practically abandoned her. She would have to cover for her mother a lot, because no matter what, Rachael Mitchell was still her mother.

Whenever the older woman would pass out on the floor, a nine year-old Beca would drag her mother to her king-sized bed, where she would then lift her into the bed so that she could tuck her in, that way her father would just think she was sleeping and it wouldn't start an argument. Whenever her mother would take her in the dead of night- despite having to be up early in order to catch the bus- to go to "a friend's" house so that she could score she would back up her mother's story of "just going to the store".

Her father had bought her her first turntable when she was thirteen- right before he kicked out his soon-to-be-ex-wife. She continued to bury herself in flowing tempos and steady beats, refusing to let herself be hurt again. That's why she loved music so much. Because, in a life filled with not knowing what was going to happen, music was a constant. It was always there for her- regardless if her parents were or not. Music never asked questions like, "Beca, is everything alright at home?" It merely let her express herself in any way she saw fit, and it never once judged her.

When she was lying, curled up in a ball, crying, it wrapped its arms around her. When she was feeling down, wondering why she should even try to get up again, music picked her up, dusted her off, and helped her take the first few steps. When she was sure that no one understood her, music did. Music became her crutch, and remained so, to this day.

She loved her family, and it withered and died before her very eyes. She loved her mother, and the woman had lied and stabbed her in the back too many times to count. She loved her father, but he was too chicken shit to deal with the problem head on, and instead left her to face it alone. Her parents said that they loved each other, but that was a bust too.

So sue her for not believing in "love" anymore.

"Beca?" Mr. Mitchell hedges carefully, noting the watery shine in his daughter's eyes. Her father's voice breaks her train of thought, and she's forcefully ripped back to the present. She notices the sting at the corners of her eyes, the telltale sign that she's about to cry.

"Is that all you wanted to ask?" Beca inquires, not really focusing on the man wearing a beige suit anymore, and instead trying to get a handle on her raging emotions. Her father stands there, unsure of what to say or do. He can see that his daughter is hurting, but he also knows that asking her what was wrong was bound to set her off. Feeling defeated and also like a failure for being shut out by his child, he nods his head slowly before wishing Beca a good day and leaving her room, pushing the door closed behind him.

Beca glances at her clock. _Six o' clock on the dot. Still have an hour until the bus gets here… "Have a good day". Yeah Dad, I'm sure that this is definitely the start of a good day. _Rolling her eyes Beca takes a deep breath, and releases it slowly, her chest deflating like a balloon, her frustration with her father flowing out of her as if it was the air in her lungs. _Wrap it up Becs._ Feeling confident that she wouldn't burst into tears anytime soon, she walks over to the foot of her bed and crawls onto it. On her hands and knees, she stretches her right in front of her and has to lean forward slightly for her fingers to wrap around the rectangle that is her phone. Unlocking her phone, she's greeted with a message and a picture that, despite her shitty mood, brings a smile to the brunette's face.

**Oh my gosh Becs! Look! I slept with my socks on THE WHOLE NIGHT! :D ^-^**

And sure enough, the picture showed her feet hidden beneath the fabric of her Sesame Street socks, her feet lined up to make Bert's face between them. Beca shakes her head but can't help the smile and chuckle that accompany the action.

Awhile back the two had had a conversation in regards to socks. Beca loved wearing socks, and would wear them as often as possible, where the older girl hated wearing socks, usually opting to wear heels or sandals to avoid the hated article of clothing. But whenever Chloe would get cold, she'd put on a pair, but had stated that she usually woke up without them on, so this was sort of a big deal.

Beca chewed her lip for a moment, before deciding that it was okay to find the whole thing just completely fucking adorable.

**Wow Chlo, you must feel like a big huh? ;)**

**Oh there you are! I was just about to call you to make sure you were up! And I do feel like a big girl thank you very much! ;)**

**Well, I mean, you could still call… If you wanted to… Y'know… ;)**

Chloe's answer was almost instantaneous, and Beca couldn't help but smile as her phone started to ring.

* * *

A tap on her shoulder brings her back to her current location. She's sitting on a stool with a concerned looking Jesse sitting on her right and Benji, wearing a similar expression sitting across from her inside of a crowded and far too noisy cafeteria. "What?" Beca asks, secretly hoping it wasn't as rude as it sounded in her own ears. Judging by how the boys physically flinched, she guessed that it was. Jesse, being used to her abrasive attitude rebounded too fast for Beca to apologize however.

"Are you okay?" The younger Beale asks, his brown eyes showing genuine concern. Beca feels her stomach churn at the question.

"Yeah."

"You sure?" Benji asks, not believing the aspiring DJ one bit.

"Yeah, just- didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night." Beca answers, slightly proud that it wasn't a lie.

"Oh okay." Jesse says, nodding his head in understanding, and Beca tries to ignore the way Benji seems to be evaluating her, as if he wasn't completely sold on the half-truth. Beca stifles a yawn behind her right hand in a dramatic show of being tired like she claimed, and it seems to work as the curly-haired boy begins to shuffle the food on his tray around instead of analyzing her.

"Hey DJ!" Cynthia greets happily as she walks up on Beca's left, bending at the waist so that she can place her forearms on the table. Beca quickly scans the girl's outfit, a loose fitting band t-shirt that looks pretty well worn, black skinny jeans that disappear into her grey sneakers, and one of her Snap-backs is currently being held in the older girl's left hand.

"Hey Sin, what's up?" Beca relies, surprised to see her friend here at the lunch table since she hardly ever stopped by the freshman's table.

"What're you doing this weekend?"

"What do you have planned?"

"Nothing yet, but I want to hang out with you regardless. We haven't chilled all year man, and it's almost Christmas break." Beca realized with a start that the older girl was right. Thanksgiving was already long gone, and their two week vacation was quickly approaching as they edged further into December.

"Holy crap you're right man… Well, I'll keep my schedule clear, and just text me when you figure out what you want to do deal?" Beca proposes, looking forward to hanging out with her friend.

"For sure DJ, catch you later." Cynthia says as she walks away, and as Beca watches her walk out the door, she sees another familiar senior enter the cafeteria. Chloe's eyes immediately find Beca's and then the redhead is suddenly all smiles and Beca is suddenly smiling back. Beca notes that the older girl looks really cute today, her hair tumbling down her shoulders in red curls that bounce with every step she takes, a black sweater that hugs every curve of her torso, dark blue jeans that rival the sweater's hugging abilities, and light brown boots that end just beneath her knees, the heels on them making a crisp clicking sound every time they met the tiled floor. The senior quickly walks over to the young brunette before wrapping her in a hug from behind due to the younger girl's sitting position.

"How're you this fine lunch period?" Chloe asks as she nuzzles her face into the freshman's hair, secretly loving the way it always smelled so fresh and clean. With her face in Beca's hair, and eyes closed, she was sure to miss how the younger girl's cheeks suddenly flushed a bright red.

"Pretty good, was just talking to Cynthia. How was band?" Beca replies and is thankful to feel the burning in her cheeks receding, despite the fact that they were still in the same position, and she could see Benji looking at her with a peculiar expression.

"Cynthia? Cynthia Rose? And it was alright, we didn't really do anything. He's just handing out our tryout music that we're going to play for him once we get back from vacation."

"That's the one. That sounds really boring, I hope we don't do nothing in band today, that'll be awful." Beca complains and tilts her head back when she feels Chloe's frame rock with laughter. "What's so funny?"

"I thought you don't get bored." Chloe replied in a teasing voice while smirking at the younger girl. It had come up in one of their many conversations that the brunette doesn't get bored. She doesn't know why, but she was content to just laze about and listen to music all day, or do nothing at all, and she'd be okay with that. However, that only applies to when she's alone. When she's with other people, she finds boredom a persistent foe, especially in crowds.

"I'm not by myself in band, now am I Chlo?" Beca replies with a smirk of her own. The redhead merely curses before admitting that the brunette had a point. Not that there was ever any doubt on the younger girl's part.

"Oh yeah, but anyway, how do you know Cynthia?" Chloe asks, suddenly remembering what the young DJ had said earlier.

"Met her awhile back, we were friends of friends until we sat down and started talking about music at a party one night."

"Oh…" Chloe replies, looking almost a little disappointed. The look is gone just as quickly as it had appeared however as Chloe smiles brightly at the brunette. "That's really cool. My friend Stacie is _**totes**_ gay for her." Chloe whispers, winking at the now blushing DJ.

"Chlo, I don't think Stacie would appreciate hearing that you said that." Jesse taunts, his eyes containing a mischievous glint.

"Good thing she's not going to, huh Jesse?" Chloe asks, her facial expression friendly, but her tone cold as ice. The younger Beale physically shrinks under his sister's gaze.

"Er, right. I just remembered, I have to uh, go get help on this paper for algebra!" Jesse says as he quickly stands and reaches under the table to grab his red backpack.

"You finished your paper this morning." Beca says, not being able to help herself due to the boy's obvious discomfort.

"Uh, different paper. Catch you guys later!" He replies before hastily leaving the cafeteria. Beca, Chloe, and even Benji can't help but burst into laughter after the heavy door swings shut behind the fleeing freshman.

"Anyway, now that I've had my entertainment for the day; are you serious? Does Stacie Conrad have a soft spot for Cynthia?" Beca questions, trying to sound nonchalant but really she was almost ecstatic since her older friend had brought up _multiple times, and in excruciating detail_ the things she wants to do to the brunette senior.

"Wait, do you know Stacie too?" Chloe asks, suddenly unsure of just how well she knew her younger friend. She takes this opportunity to steal the spot that her little brother had recently occupied.

"Not really, I've talked to her a few times, she thinks I'm funny, but that's about it as far as that goes. And, before you ask, I know Aubrey too. We've had… parting comments, she's not too overly fond of me. Personally, I think she's scared of me. Afraid I'll cast a spell on her or something." Beca replies, scoffing at the idea of placing a spell on the uptight blonde. Maybe she could find one where it would make the victim cut loose, and just say and do whatever they wanted without any filter. She would love to hear what the blonde would say to her without trying to keep her anger in check. She also wondered what kind of party animal she'd probably be.

_Probably the one who started taking her clothes off. Yeah, I can see that. Oh God, I can literally __**see**__ that… __**Not**__, an image, I wanted. _

"Bree is really cool once you get to know her Becs! I know she can come off as uptight and kinda bitchy, but she's a sweetheart underneath the exterior." Chloe says in a rather pleading tone, almost as if she were begging Beca to see the girl in question in a new light.

"I bet she is to you Chlo, but the point remains, that she doesn't like me."

"Well, how about we change that?"

"Uh, what do you mean?"

"This weekend she's free, and I can invite her over to see how cool you are, and then once she sees it, she won't be as mean to you, and you can see how cool she is! It's _**totes**_ foolproof!"

"Chloe, that is _**literally**_, the _**opposite**_ of foolproof. That's like, putting an open flame next to a gas can, and hoping that they won't have a volatile reaction." Beca replies, slightly shuddering at the thought of being forced to hang out with Chloe's friend. "And plus, I told Cynthia that I'd hang out with her this weekend, so I can't sorry." Beca adds on, feeling slightly better for having a credible reason to not agree to Chloe's half-baked idea. Chloe's eyes widen just as her infamous smile begins to creep onto her face. "No. Whatever it is, no." Beca warns, already knowing that Chloe had an idea.

"Aww, c'mon Becs, you don't even know what it is!" Chloe whines, her face looking all in the world like a little girl who was just told that Santa wasn't real.

"And I don't want to. The answer is no." Beca retorts, crossing her arms defiantly. Upon hearing no response, Beca chances a glance at the senior. That was when she fucked up.

Chloe's bottom lip was trembling, jutting out below her upper lip, her eyes were like pits into the bluest ocean, and the tears that were welling up at the bottom of those baby blue orbs were adding to the effect. "Chloe! God damn it, I said no!" The freshman yells as she hides her face in her hands, knowing all too well that if she looks at The Pout for too long, she'll give away her headphones, let alone hear Chloe out on her scheme.

"Please?" Chloe asks in a tone that's probably supposed to come off as begging, but instead lands somewhere closer to seductive. This causes Beca to look up at the older girl, who, despite the tone of voice, is still sporting The Pout, but there's something different about her eyes. It's like they lead to an entirely different ocean now. One filled with sea creatures, and danger, and excitement. Beca's mouth is suddenly really dry.

"Fine." Beca relents breathlessly, not exactly sure what just happened. Chloe squeals in response as she leans over and pulls Beca into a hug that practically has the younger girl perched on her lap.

"Woah."

Both girls look up, one's face sporting a very bright blush, the other a very bright smile.

"What Benj?" Chloe asks, her smile still shinning in full force.

"You've got her so whipped." He replies, a shit eating grin on his face. Beca feels her cheeks burn even more at the statement. She makes to stand up so that she can go bloody the boy's blue and white stripped polo and khakis, but doesn't make much progress due to the strong arms that are restraining her.

"Oh I know, pretty soon, and I won't even have to use The Pout, she'll just give in." Chloe says, her voice cocky as hell in Beca's opinion.

"Bullshit. And I am _**not**_ 'whipped' thank you very much. Did you see that god damned _**weapon**_ she just pulled out? Shit should be illegal." Beca retorts, not finding the current conversation humorous in the least.

"Coming from the girl being _**cradled**_." Benji retorts, and Beca has to be honest that she's surprised at his apparent quick wit today. Usually he's pretty slow at getting jokes, and making comebacks, which was actually a pretty bad thing if you're going to hang out the crowd that he does. But no one could match Beca, and everyone knew that, but here she was, the ball once again in her court due to none other than Benjamin Applebaum. _What the hell is happening here?_

"The correct word is, 'restrained', because if I wasn't, I'd be kicking your ass right now." Beca replies, struggling against the thin and surprisingly strong arms that encased her torso.

"Aww, Beca, be nice." Chloe reprimands in a tone that sounds like she's addressing a small child. Beca is about to tell Chloe where to shove her "cute" remarks, but the retort dies in her throat, as she feels a pair of lips press against her left cheek. A familiar burn runs across her face, and the expected focused area of heat where Chloe's lips had touched is there too. Beca is having trouble forming any coherent thoughts at the moment, and the redhead would be lying if she said that she didn't think that was the cutest thing ever. "Are you gonna listen now?" Chloe asks in a gentle voice. Beca merely nods.

"I think you broke her." Benji says, biting down on his lower lip in order to restrain himself from laughing at the show the two girls were putting on. They were already practically together, so he didn't see why they were still dancing around each other like they were. Sure Jesse would be devastated that his _**older sister**_ got the _**girl of his dreams**_, but it was obvious that Chloe made Beca happy, and vice versa, and really… That's all that matters. Not the fact that Chloe was now technically an adult, and any form of intimacy, no matter how small, would be _**illegal-**_ _thank God for small towns where no one cares about that_, or the fact that they were both girls- _not that everyone in a small town **in Texas** would agree to that one_, or even that they were polar opposites. No, the only thing that mattered to Benji was that, his friend made his- _practically_ big sister happy. Chloe opened her mouth to tell Beca her plan, but just then the bell rang.

Even Benji could see the disappointment from the girls at having to separate.

_They just need to get together already._ Benji decides as he grabs his bag and leaves, not wanting to impose on the girls any more than he already has. He can't help but smile as he hears Chloe's familiar laugh sound from behind him, joined by Beca's usual chuckle. _They even sound good together. I wonder what they'd sound like singing together… Probably great. _Another chorus of their laughter follows him into the band hall. _Yeah, for sure._

* * *

**What would you say, if I told you, that I could hook you up with a certain Miss Conrad this weekend?**

Beca smirks at the thought of what her friend's facial expression would be upon reading the message.

**I'd say that I thought Stacie was the tease, not you. **

**Very funny. I'm being serious. Chloe would help set it up and everything. **

**Chloe? Beale? Redhead, kinda cute?**

Beca feels an odd sensation in her stomach that makes her feel like she's going to be sick, but she pushes it aside.

**That's the one. Also known as, one of Stacie's best friends. ;) I might've been told by a little birdy that Stacie is, "totes gay for you". **

**No shit? Well, how would you go about this devious plan of yours?**

**Devious plan of Chloe, not mine. I'm just the messenger. She wants me to hang out with Aubrey so that maybe we'll get along better, but I told her that I said I'd hang out with you. So she came up with the idea that we all go to Treble City and watch a scary movie (because apparently Stacie gets really scared) and then when we're on our way home, she'll propose a sleepover, for "safety purposes", and she'll arrange it to where you and Stacie room together. **

**Oh fuck yes. I want to kiss your little redhead friend right now, you don't even know.**

Beca feels the churning in her stomach again, but this time it's worse. _Ugh, must've been that lunch. I knew I shouldn't have eaten it after Jesse found that hair in his food._

**Lol, so I should tell her that you said yes? ;)**

**Are you kidding? What the hell are you doing still texting me?! ;D**

**Ha, alright, I'll get right on that. ;)**

**Thanks DJ, this means a lot. And Beale has just earned a lot of points in my book. But I've got to say, that I don't think she could've come up with the entire scheme by herself. :/**

**Alright, I might've thrown in the sleepover idea, plus the room. ;) **

**You're the best. **

**Was there ever any doubt? ;) **

**So wait, I have to ask. You and Red, you uh, rooming together? **

**Uh, I don't know… We didn't really plan out that part. Just you and Stace. I kinda assumed that I'd take the couch and her and Aubrey would take her room. **

**Niggaboo! Uh uh! You need to jump all over that, because, a little birdy (A.K.A. My Gaydar) might've told me that a certain redhead has the hots for you. ;) **

Beca felt her face flush again. Her heart beat started picking up, and she was suddenly unsure of everything. Chloe and her were just friends. _**Friends. And that's it.**_ Chloe's straight, and Beca didn't think she could be in a relationship since that clashed with the whole, "Loner" type lifestyle she had envisioned herself in.

**Lol, whatever. I've gotta go get your secret date set up, so you better behave alright? ;)**

"**Behave"? Wtf is that? ;)**

**Shut the hell up. I'll text you later to let you know the details. ;)**

**Later DJ B, and again, thanks :)**

Beca switches her messages over to Chloe's conversation and braces herself for what is sure to be an interesting weekend.

**She said yes.**

The redhead's reply came not a moment later.

**Oh my gosh yes! This is going to be so great Becs! Just you wait and see! ;D **

**Uh huh… What did Aubrey say?**

**Uh, well, she's just about as thrilled as you are at the prospect, but she said that she'd do it for me… :)**

**You use The Pout?**

… **No. Maybe. Yes. **

**Thought so. Chlo, I don't want you to think that after this weekend, Aubrey and I are going to be the best of friends alright?**

**I know, I know, she said the same thing. I think you guys have more in common than you know. ;)**

**God, I hope not.**

**Beca! **

**Alright, alright, alright, I'm sorry, that was "uncalled for". **

**:/ You're awful. **

**And?**

**Whatever! D: I gotta go to work, text you when I can! :)**

**Lol, alright, go make some money man. ;)**

**Fo' Sho! 8) **

Placing her phone on her desk, she grabs her headphones from around her neck and slips them on. The young girl works on her current mix, blending together David Guetta's Titanium and She Wolf (Falling to Pieces). After about an hour, she's content with the amount of progress she's made and quickly saves and closes her mix. She's about to shut down her desktop, but instead opens her iTunes. She liked to go to the store and just look for new songs whenever she could.

"Alright, alright… Who's someone that I know?" Beca asks herself, trying to form a plan on how she was going to go about finding new music tonight. Typing in the name of the artist she chose, she read over the songs that were listed below. "Wonderland? Let's try that one." She clicked on the little play button out next to the song title, and she instantly wanted it. "Well, that's a good start." Beca decides as she watches Wonderland by Natalia Kills download into her library. _Chloe might like that one… I'll show her tomorrow, or maybe this weekend since it's like, a forty minute drive to Treble City. _Remembering what her weekend was going to involve, Beca couldn't help but exhaling roughly. Running a hand over her face, she decides that she was seriously going to learn how to say no to Chloe, even if she was using The Pout.

Not only was she going to spend a whole night with Aubrey Posen, the same woman who had told her to take her "ear monstrosities" out for the marching contest, but she was going to _**the movies**_. _What Jesse wouldn't give… _

Her usual disdain for movies came from their predictability, and horror movies were the worst about that. _Oh, there's a murderer trying to get into the house? Let me run upstairs that way I have no way out._

Everyone dies, and sometimes, one or two people will live. Either the murderer is caught or killed, or they get away, and there's a sequel. And if someone lived through the first movie, then they're more than likely going to die in the next one within the first ten minutes. Beca only watched them to laugh at the character's predicament when she did find herself watching one. The movie Chloe had mentioned had sounded just about as predictable as it gets.

Crazed killer going around killing a bunch of young adults. _Whoo._ But to Beca's enjoyment, she hadn't missed how Chloe seemed uncomfortable with the idea of the movie. Chloe just didn't seem like the type to care for that particular genre, and if her worried eyes, and wary tone were anything to go by, that was the case. Beca smirked at the idea of Chloe screaming and squirming as someone was brutally murdered in whatever creative way Hollywood showed.

_This weekend is definitely going to be… One for the books._

* * *

"Holy shit…" Cynthia breathes out quietly upon seeing Stacie exit her house. Beca had to agree from where she sat in the passenger seat, but for a different reason probably. If it was at all possible, Stacie seems to be flaunting herself even more than usual, her maroon shirt hugging tighter than her usual shirts, the v in the neck plunging lower, her shorts barely covering her ass, and her black high-top Converse managing to make the outfit look entirely casual. _I guess now that there's not a dress code, all bets are off. Poor Cynthia. _Beca scoffs as she sees her older friend practically drooling.

"Sin, close your mouth." Beca says while trying to stifle her laugh. The girl in question quickly shakes her head and takes a deep breath. Both Beca and Cynthia were dressed similarly to how they always dressed. The darker of the two wearing light blue skinny jeans that slipped into her grey Adidas, and topped it off with a pink and purple plaid button up, left unbuttoned to expose the black tank top beneath it. Beca had left her hair down to fall around her shoulders in large curls, and was wearing black skinny jeans that bunched up slightly at the bottom where they met her grey and black checkered slip on Vans, a black t-shirt that plunged low in the v- but not anywhere near as low as Stacie's- with a purple and black plaid shirt slipped on over it, and as always, her headphones were perched around her neck, finishing her outfit nicely.

Stacie slipped in the backseat on Beca's side. "Nice car Cynthia." Stacie compliments as she pulls the seat-belt over herself. It was an understatement in Beca's opinion. She would give anything to have Cynthia's car. It was a 2010 Ford Mustang GT, and Cynthia always kept the black exterior clean, so it _**always**_ looked sexy to Beca.

"Thanks Stace, you look good tonight." Cynthia replies smoothly, despite her floundering moments ago. Putting the car in gear, she started driving to Chloe's house, picking up the tall brunette having been their job while Chloe was probably telling Aubrey to behave. Pulling up to the redhead's house they spot Aubrey's white 2012 Chevy Malibu Sedan parked in front of the yard, and Chloe's 2000 tan Ford Sport Trac sitting in the driveway. They all get out of the vehicle that's now parked behind Aubrey's car and make small talk about the movie they're going to see, and Beca can't believe that no one has noticed the sexual tension between them before. _Or maybe it's just them. Maybe it's harder for the people actually in the situation to sense it… _Beca reasons to herself seeing as that was the only explanation seeing as how blatantly obvious it was to her.

Beca raises her hand to knock, but doesn't get the chance since the door is already being opened. She's greeted by a tall blonde wearing a dark purple v-neck sweater, and light blue skinny jeans that disappear into dark brown boots that end just below her knees, who is smiling brightly at the trio of girls standing before her.

"Hey Aubrey." All the girls chorus together, albeit some sounding more genuine than others.

"Hey Stacie! Cynthia. Beca." Aubrey replies, her voice losing some of its enthusiasm with each name said. _Gonna be a great night._ Aubrey steps off to the side to let them in, but she grabs Beca's right arm before she can get away. Beca tenses her arm at the contact and is about to tell Aubrey to let go in a way that involves a very colorful vocabulary, but before she can the senior releases her grip and raises her hands in a surrender type motion.

"Hold it. Look," Aubrey starts, and pauses to sigh and straighten the hem of her shirt, "Chloe really likes you, so it would be easier for us to get along seeing as we'll probably be seeing a lot more of each other, unless we want to put a strain on her. And I don't want to do that, do you?" Aubrey asks, her tone more than implying there's an obvious right and wrong answer.

"No I don't. So, are you proposing a truce?" Beca replies and then questions, a little more than wary of the older girl. A heavy sigh is her reply.

"Yes, and if we could manage it, I don't know yet… Maybe we could even be friends." The last word is muffled seeing as Aubrey practically grumbled it.

"Do you really think you could get past my 'ear monstrosities' to sit in a room long enough to get to know me?" Beca challenges. She notices the clench of the blonde's jaw.

"I don't know, maybe if your attitude wasn't such a pain in the ass."

"You don't even know me."

"Do I really want to?"

"I don't know, do you?" Aubrey pauses to think over her reply, and Beca takes advantage of the lull in the conversation. "Look, that's not exactly us upholding a truce. I don't like you, and you don't like me, fair enough. But we're going to have to at least try, if not to simply make our lives easier, then for Chloe. Deal?" Beca asks, swallowing her pride long enough to try and reason with the blonde for Chloe's sake. Aubrey looks skeptical, then shocked, and finally settles on content.

"Deal." She replies, holding her hand out to the freshman who promptly takes the extended hand in hers, pumps once, then lets go, the deal made. "Did she use The Pout on you?" Aubrey asks, a slightly forced smile on her face as she tries to make a more friendly banter.

"Yeah. Heard she used it on you too." Beca replies, somewhat sorry that the blonde was put through that. The girl in question nods solemnly. "We didn't stand a chance." Beca says and Aubrey genuinely laughs at the statement because of how true it is.

"Oh good, you guys are getting along!" Chloe squeals as she rounds the corner into the front hallway. "I was beginning to worry that you two were fighting…" The redhead admits sadly.

"Not at the moment." Aubrey replies throwing a knowing smile at the short brunette. It might just be coincidence, but she thinks that the freshman looks visibly more relaxed now that Chloe was here. _That's odd. _It also could just be the fact that she and Beca weren't trying to kill each other at the moment, but Chloe looked absolutely ecstatic as she enveloped the younger woman in a hug. _Chloe Beale… Are you keeping a secret from me? _Aubrey wonders idly, trying to process exactly what she was seeing. Chloe was always overly friendly, but there was just something about it that made it seem like that wasn't the case this time. Not to mention how Beca had seemed ready to deck her when she just touched her arm, but now here she was returning Chloe's hug with just as much fervor. Then again, it could also be that Beca didn't particularly like Aubrey, but still. _So many questions. But they're going to have to wait or we're going to be late. _The young woman was shocked when she realized she was right, pulling out her phone to check the time and noticing that they had a little under an hour to get there.

"Alright guys, time to go. I'm gonna go get the girls." Aubrey says as she steps around them in order to go find the missing seniors.

"Hey Chlo, you don't like scary movies do you?" Beca questions having felt her friend's physical reaction at the mention of having to leave. It was then that Beca took a moment to appreciate what the redhead was wearing. Simple, but it still looks really good. Chloe was wearing a sky blue colored shirt with a wide, but not deep V that showed off her collar bones nicely and also brought out her eyes quite well, dark blue jeans that looked like they were painted on, and a pair of white sandals. _Holy shit. She looks beautiful. _

"Not really no… They scare me, so…" Chloe replies sheepishly as the rest of the girls join them.

"Aww, it'll be alright Chloe, if you get scared I'm pretty sure DJ will let you hold onto her for protection." Cynthia reassures with a smirk on her face. Beca bites the inside of her cheek at the biting remarks she wants to make, and hopes that the burning on her cheeks isn't as noticeable as it feels.

"Yeah, and Stacie can hold on to you!" Chloe replies winking at her best friend who glares daggers at her.

"For sure." Cynthia replies throwing a wink of her own at the tall brunette who merely smiles in reply.

"Well, now that that's settled, can we please go?" Aubrey cuts in, not wanting to be late. Aubrey opens the front door and walks out, followed by Cynthia and Stacie who are talking about cars, surprising Beca by the knowledge that Stacie seems to possess about them. Beca steps outside into the crisp night air and waits for Chloe to close and lock the door behind her. "Hey Chlo, want shotgun?" Aubrey calls back to the redhead across the yard.

"No thanks, I'll sit in the back with Becs!" She calls back, then pausing to think about it, asks in a quieter tone, "If that's okay with you…?" Beca rolls her eyes.

"Doy Chlo, wouldn't have it any other way man." She replies smiling up at the senior who returns the expression.

"DJ, you're riding bitch." Cynthia says as she holds the door open for the young brunette. Beca laughs at the statement, but takes the seat regardless. With everyone seated, and Chloe's phone hooked up to the car's speakers, they drove to the theater singing loudly the whole way up there. Chloe even got Beca singing along, and the freshman couldn't help but notice how everyone had a good voice. _Even Aubrey. _She thinks absently, albeit pleasantly surprised since it'd be easier to like her if the older girl liked music. Despite everyone in the car having a voice worth recording, no one came close to Chloe's in her opinion. There was just something about the redhead's voice that… Took her breath away.

Beca had been enjoying Chloe's singing so much that she was actually a bit disappointed when they arrived at the theatre. _Here we go. _Beca thought as exited the car.

* * *

A sudden scream of "Oh shit" caused Beca to jump in her seat, almost spilling the candy she was holding for Chloe, when she realized that the scream hadn't come from the big screen, and instead from the aforementioned redhead who had her hands clasped together in front of her face, the movie reflecting off of her 3-D glasses. Beca scoffed at her friend's behavior as the moment passed, the reason it was so funny was because the movie had literally, _**just started**_ and she was already freaking out.

The movie continued as the half-baked plot was laid before them, and Beca couldn't understand the hype about this stupid movie. Whenever a suspenseful moment came up Chloe's right hand would find Beca's left arm and squeeze until Beca was sure she'd have five little crescent moon indentations in her skin. But it was a small price to pay for the surge of warmth that would accompany the action every time, making it hard to actually focus on the movie.

During one scene, the remaining three main characters were trying to escape, and they were driving down the road when they suddenly lost control of the vehicle and it rolled into the bar ditch. Beca didn't know why, but she couldn't suppress the laugh that made its way out of her throat. She felt rather than saw Chloe's horrified face look at her like she was crazy, but upon hearing Aubrey's laugh join hers, she decided it was alright. The rest of the movie was uneventful and the ending was god awful, and Beca didn't waste any time to let everyone know that either. It was unanimously agreed that the movie did indeed, suck.

* * *

"I can't believe you guys laughed at that!" Chloe whines as they all sit down at a table in a Whataburger, the bright lights and blinding colors serving as a brilliant contrast to the dark night sky that surrounded them outside.

"It was funny!" Aubrey argued while Beca just laughed at the mention of the scene.

"No it wasn't! You guys are awful!" She replies casting her glance between Beca and Aubrey. The two shared a look and burst out laughing again while Chloe just sat there horrified.

"You're telling me, that you didn't find that, the _**least**_ bit funny? Really Chlo?" Beca asks while trying to get her laughter under control.

"No I didn't!" She reaffirms, and it's at this point that each girl realizes the argument is a lost cause.

"Whatever, it wasn't that scary at least." Aubrey says, effectively ending the discussion.

"It was kind of scary." Stacie chimes in.

"Naw, I agree with Beca and Aubrey, it wasn't that bad." Cynthia says as she lifts her cup to take a drink through the straw.

"That movie was scary as shit, you guys are just being asses." Chloe replies while crossing her arms and sinking into her chair.

"Aww, it's okay Chlo, we won't judge you." Beca says while winking at the redhead.

"Won't judge at all. We'll just make fun of you for it." Aubrey reaffirms smirking at her sulking friend. Chloe sits up fast enough to cause the table to rock a little.

"Bree stop it, that's so not cool!" Chloe whines jutting out her bottom lip slightly, and both Aubrey and Beca know that she's getting ready to start pouting so they immediately stop teasing her, lest they be subjected to that torture. Just then a waitress carrying their orders comes up. She passes out their food and she turns to walk away until she stops and turns back around.

"Can I get your number?" She asks Beca while pointing to the small plastic number that's sitting on the table. Beca smirks at her.

"Yeah, it's 867-" Beca starts but stops as she feels a stinging slap on her left shoulder. "Ow! What the-"

"Here you go ma'am." Chloe interrupts as she holds out the number to the now blushing waitress. She stutters out a thank you before walking back to the kitchen. "Stupid." Chloe says angrily, directing the comment towards Beca who's now holding her shoulder.

"I was just kidding!" Beca whines while rubbing her hand over her shoulder.

"Aww Chloe, I know you're jealous, but that's no reason to throw a girl off her game." Stacie says with a smug grin on her face. Chloe's eyes seem to flare with fire, and no one misses the clenching of her jaw.

"I'm not _**jealous**_. Beca can give her number to anyone she wants, I don't care." Chloe replies sounding angry.

"Chlo, she was just kidding." Beca says in defense of the other brunette who's sitting there shocked to say the least. The freshman gently places her hand against the older girl's arm and the reaction is almost instant, the redhead's her shoulders relax, and the anger that was in her eyes drains away.

"Yeah, yeah I know, I'm sorry Stace." Chloe apologizes, her voice sounding full of remorse.

"Hey, no, it's totes cool." Stacie replies, and she means it, but the atmosphere is awkward now. Noticing this, Beca turned to the only thing she knew to.

"David Guetta or Calvin Harris?" She asks while raising her burger to take a bite out of it.

"Sleep with or better music?" Stacie asks with a grin. Beca rolls her eyes.

"Better music, jeeze." She replies while trying to hide her amusement at the other brunette's question.

"David Guetta." Chloe answers with a nod of her head as if that solidified her answer.

"Naw girl, Calvin Harris has that one in the bag." Cynthia challenges, and soon enough it turns into an actual debate. Chloe's outburst is all but forgotten, and the question leaves David Guetta and Calvin Harris since they weren't able to agree on a winner, and it instead drifted to various other artists as the girls ate their dinner.

With their conversation easy once again, Beca chanced a glance at Chloe, and happened to catch her eye. The redhead had a silent thank you written there, and Beca felt that once again, music hadn't let her down.

* * *

"Aubrey are you sure you don't want to stay?" Chloe asks once again, following the blonde outside.

"I'm sure Chloe, I've got work in the morning, and it's already late, and if I stayed, I wouldn't get to sleep for another few hours." Aubrey replies while opening her door. The redhead frowns, but nods in understanding. The two seniors share a hug and before they pull apart Aubrey says something that puts Chloe at a loss for words. "She's still generally a pain in the ass, but I approve." Before Chloe can gather herself and ask the blonde what she had meant, Aubrey was already pulling away, leaving Chloe watching her red tail lights disappear, along with her chance to get an answer. Chloe walks back into her house and shakes off the moment, deciding that she didn't want to be a downer for the rest of the night.

"Hey Chloe, what's the sleeping arrangement?" Stacie asks the redhead as soon as she enters her room, laughing at the three teenagers sprawled out on her bed. She looks over at Beca who's on her side, and she notices that Beca's just looking around, and suddenly Chloe's self-conscience about her room. _What if she thinks it's lame? It's Beca, she wouldn't, she's cool. She gets it. _But still, Chloe couldn't help but worry that her room wouldn't meet the younger woman's expectations. Not that she should really care as much as she does whether or not the young freshman likes her room, but the fact remains that she does. She cares a lot.

"We can all squish in together in my bed?" Chloe proposes and has to force down a laugh as all three girls snap their heads in her direction. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, jeeze. You can either sleep in the living room- we'll make a pallet in there, or in Jesse's room since he's at Benji's house for the night." She offers, and after a few seconds of silence she prompts someone to say something by raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not sure a teenage boy's bed is the best place to sleep Chlo…" Beca says, glancing at Cynthia and Stacie to see if the source of their discomfort was the same as hers. Reading their faces, it was. Chloe's face flushed a deep red as she understood.

"Oh, no, no, I totes got him to wash his sheets and stuff today. It's clean." She answers hastily trying not to think of what the other girls were implying about her little brother. The looks of relief are immediate.

"Jesse's room it is then. Goodnight guys." Cynthia concludes as she starts to shuffle off of Chloe's bed.

"Cynthia, can uh, can I sleep with you?" Stacie asks her voice surprisingly innocent given the actual wording of the question. Cynthia nods her head in reply. Chloe steps into her room and off to the side so that the other girls can get past her. Beca throws a thumbs up accompanied by a wink at Cynthia who merely rolls her eyes in response.

"Wanna bunk with me?" Chloe asks as she pushes the door closed behind her.

"I don't see why not." Beca replies, sliding off her over shirt and begins to pull the covers back so that she can crawl underneath them.

"Want some shorts or something? Like, for pajamas." Chloe asks, not thinking that sleeping in skinny jeans sounded very comfortable.

"Mmm, sure, I'd enjoy some pa_**jam**_a shorts." The small brunette replies, using her own pronunciation of the word. Chloe glances over her shoulder as she digs through one of her dresser drawers at the young girl sitting on her bed.

"Pa_**jam**_as? Why do you say it like that?" The older girl questions as she tosses her black Nike shorts to the freshman, and she smiles as she sees a blush cross the younger girl's face.

"Because… When I was little, I was in my room listening to music once, and… I was _**jammin' **_ in my pa_**jam**_as." Beca replies while looking down at her fingers that are picking at the hem of her t-shirt, feeling really, really stupid for actually admitting to that. Chloe's silence isn't reassuring either, so she chances a glance at the older girl who has turned completely around and is now leaning back against her dresser with her arms crossed, and a large smile on her face. "W-What?" Beca asks, wishing she could take it back now.

"That is the cutest thing _**ever**_." The older girl replies as she walks over to Beca and cups the younger girl's face between her hands. Beca's face flushes even more at the contact and she hopes that Chloe can't feel how warm her face must be from all of her blushing. "_**You're **_the cutest thing ever." Chloe says, just before leaning down slightly and placing a kiss on Beca's right cheek causing the young brunette to blush further, and she was sure that her cheeks were now redder than her friend's hair. The older girl releases Beca's face and steps back so that she can walk back to her dresser where she had planned on changing herself. As the older girl changed shirts Beca couldn't help but sneak a peek, and was entranced by the expanse of smooth, freckled skin she saw. Taking a deep breath the brunette forces herself to look away before she gets caught and slides off the bed and begins unbuttoning her jeans.

She turns her back to Chloe and starts sliding the dark fabric down her pale legs. She has to bend over to get her ankles free from the tight denim, and then folds them neatly; she places them next to the shorts that Chloe had given her. Grabbing the aforementioned shorts, she quickly steps into them and reaches down to grab her shirt and then grabs her jeans off of the bed. She turns around and sees Chloe standing there with an almost pained look on her face.

"Chlo, you alright?" The brunette asks cautiously as she steps around her in order to place her clothes on the chair that the older girl has in the corner of her room. She hears the redhead take a deep breath before answering.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just- uh, spaced out for a moment." Chloe says, her usual smile in place, though her voice sounds lower, huskier than Beca thinks is normal. Choosing not to pry though, Beca merely nods at the older girl in understanding. They both climb up on the bed and settle into the soft mattress while pulling the cover over themselves.

"Aubrey isn't that bad I guess." Beca mumbles as she switches to lying on her left side so that she's facing the senior. She swears that the older girl's smile is glowing in the dark as she rolls onto her right side so that they're facing each other now.

"Told you. She doesn't completely hate you either y'know." Chloe replies, feeling like this whole night was a huge success since she got to hang out with her friends, and may have even gotten her friends to get along now. "What do you think they're doing in there?" Chloe asks, her voice an excited whisper.

"Probably just talking, if not fooling around a bit. I don't think Sin would go too far in someone else's bed."

"Mmm, now that you mention it, I hope you're right… I'd hate to have to explain why I had to wash his sheets right after he did." Chloe says, laughing as she finishes her statement.

"Eww… So not an image I wanted." Beca whines, closing her eyes tightly in protest to the pictures invading her mind. Chloe just laughs even harder at this. "Thanks by the way." Beca says as she forgets- or tries to at least- the turn their conversation had taken.

"For what?"

"For setting this whole thing up. It was actually, kind of fun." Beca informs her older friend who looks like she was just awarded an Emmy based on how big her smile was. Beca didn't have time to tell her to cool it however because she was wrapped in the older girl's arms before she knew what was happening.

"It was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad that you came, and thanks for helping out by getting Cynthia to come." Chloe says as she tightens her grip around the young brunette who was currently at a loss for words. She was used to Chloe invading her personal space during the day, but there was something different about this. Maybe it was because there was no one else around, maybe it was because it was at night, hell, maybe it was because they were lying down and Beca could feel Chloe's long, smooth legs tangling with hers, she didn't know. All she knew was that it was different, but not necessarily in a bad way. Just, different. Definitely different.

"Not a problem, now go to bed, it's late." Beca says as she wraps her own arms around the senior's frame. Chloe merely hums in response, apparently already nodding off. Beca waited awhile longer until the other girl's breathing eventually evened out with sleep. It was only then that she allowed herself to worry about the night to come.

_What if I wake her up? What if I hit her when I sit up or something? _ The young DJ worried, not sure how the redhead would react to her nightmares. Chloe knew that she had them frequently, but she didn't know the extent, or the fact that they were a nightly thing, and frankly, Beca didn't want her to. She didn't want the older girl to think that there was something wrong with her, even though there was; she just didn't want Chloe to look at her any differently. _Would she pity me if she knew how bad they were? God, that'd kill me. _Beca was not a fan of pity in the least.

The freshman was prepared to stay up all night if she had to, but between the soft mattress, Chloe's warm embrace, and the feeling that she was completely and utterly safe here in her friend's arms that wasn't an option as sleep eventually settled over her like a thick cloak.

* * *

The first thing she notices, is that she's not scared. The second thing she notices is that, she had moved in her sleep. The third thing she notices is that, she never wants to get up.

Beca's lying on her back and Chloe is using the brunette's left shoulder as a pillow, the older girl's left arm thrown over Beca's abdomen, and their legs tangled up together. Beca gently places her right hand on the arm that is sitting on her midsection, for what reason, she isn't sure. She feels Chloe's warm breathing against her neck and has to take a deep breath herself because of it. Glancing to her right she sees the clock that sits up on Chloe's nightstand and notes that it's barely past ten in the morning. After a brief internal battle of whether or not to get up- Beca reasoning that it was probably unacceptable for someone awake to lie in bed with someone else who was asleep- the brunette begins to carefully de-tangle her limbs from the older girl's.

Chloe groans as Beca lifts herself from the bed and starts gently pulling her arm out from underneath the senior's head. Successfully removing herself from the bed without waking up the other girl, she quietly begins tiptoeing out of the room. She cracks the door open, and looks back at her friend who has now taken up a lying position on her back, her red hair splayed across her pillows like a beautiful flame, and Beca has the strongest urge to go over to her and place a kiss on her forehead. _What the fuck? Dude, no. _Beca thinks to herself as she all but forces herself to exit the room, quietly pulling the door closed behind her. Tempted to peek into Jesse's room- which is literally, a step to the right of Chloe's- to see whether or not the other girls were up, Beca stands in the hallway for a moment before deciding the move was too risky.

She walks through the silent house, her feet not making a sound due to the wood paneling and her black socks. After brief glances at childhood pictures of Jesse and Chloe- which reveal her friend to be a natural blonde it seems- the young brunette finds herself in the kitchen. Shrugging she begins looking for a pan so that she can make breakfast for everyone.

"Oh, good morning Beca!" Chloe's mother, Sandra greets in a happy whisper, effectively scaring the shit out the younger girl. Beca takes a moment to look over the older woman. She looked a lot like Chloe in the face, but that's where the similarities stopped, both her hair and eyes- which held the same kindness that Chloe's did- were brown like Jesse's. The older Beale woman was wearing black sweats with an oversized blue hoodie, and she managed to pull it off- bedhead and everything.

"Good morning Sandra, how're you?" Beca greets as she holds a hand over her chest, as if that would help get her heart rate back to normal.

"I'm good, how was the movie? And what're you looking for if I might ask." The older woman replies.

"It was awful, but I don't generally like movies to begin with, so, my opinion is not one to go by in that regards. And, I was just looking for a skillet so that I could make breakfast for everyone." Beca answers feeling really self-conscience now.

"Oh, well, then I'm assuming you went to just to be with your friends? And coincidentally, that's what I'm in here to do too. Want to help each other out?" The older brunette asks while smirking at her. _God, they're so related._

"Yes ma'am, and that sounds like a wonderful idea." Beca answers, her discomfort gone just as fast as it had appeared.

"Alright, what exactly did you have in mind?" Mrs. Beale asks as she reaches down into a drawer and retrieves a pan.

"I was going for eggs, toast, and apple juice…" Beca replies wondering what the other woman had planned.

"My daughter's going to fall in love with you if you keep that up." The older woman jokes knowing that that was one of her daughter's favorite meals. Beca almost asks if that's a bad thing, but catches herself just before she does, and instead lets the comment sit there, changing the subject back to the task of preparing breakfast. The two fall into easy conversation, but the younger girl is only half paying attention.

_Of course that's a bad thing Beca, Jesus Christ. She's one of your best friends, and __**that's it**__, just a friend. Besides, she's straight anyway… Not that that matters since she's __**just**__ a friend. Besides, you don't believe in love remember? _

_Love is for idiots who are just asking for trouble._

Just as the women are about to finish setting the table, a sleepy and disheveled Chloe stumbles through the doorway. Her shirt is wrinkled, her hair looks like it hasn't been brushed in a week, and she's got a little bit of dry drool on the right side of her mouth, but as soon as she sees the food placed on the table she wakes up immediately.

The excitement in her eyes is absolutely adorable, and when her mother tells her that the meal of the morning was chosen entirely by Beca, the bright smile and shinning eyes directed her way make Beca think that she just might be asking for trouble.

* * *

**A/N: Chapter's long as shit man! I made it a goal to make this update longer because apparently, my updates are too short. (You know who you are.) ;) Also, brownie points if anyone can tell me what horror movie I was referencing in the theater. (Hint: It came out this year, which is also why I didn't actually say it was that movie, because then the time line would be messed up.) **

**Also, a list of the songs mentioned in this chapter (in order of appearance) in case you don't feel like going back and finding them:**

**Bout Me by Whiz Khalifa**

**Titanium (Feat. Sia) by David Guetta (I had to guys, I'm sorry)**

**She Wolf (Falling to Pieces) [Feat. Sia] by David Guetta**

**Wonderland by Natalia Kills**

**And just Calvin Harris in general**

**And on a parting note: Thank you to everyone who has shown your support for this story by favorite'ing, following, and especially reviewing, as a writer, knowing that people like what you're writing is a really great honor, so, again thank you. Alright, stay sexy ~Natt**


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